Hand of the Week

A couple of people are trying to persuade me to start a 'hand of the week' blog, discussing interesting hands from the duplicates at Dorchester or Weymouth. I'm not sure about that, but this was the most interesting hand at Dorchester this week.

West led the ten of spades and declarer ducked the first two tricks (in case East had opened with a 5-card suit) and won the third. As West is more likely to hold the length in hearts, his next move was to play ace, king and another heart, but East was able to win and cash spades for two down.

Declarer missed an extra chance with an avoidance play. After a heart to the ace, he can come back to hand in diamonds and lead another heart, ducking when West plays the queen.

However, West could have thwarted this cunning plan by ditching the queen of hearts on the third round of spades. A tough play to find, but not too far-fetched as it only costs if declarer has jack doubleton of hearts. This would leave partner with four hearts, unlikely after the weak two opening. But then the defence have no chance if declarer wins the second round of spades.

Reverse Lightner

We made too many mistakes to make the cut in the regional final of the National Pairs, and in any case we have already used up a lifetime's worth of good fortune in this event. This wild hand provided some light relief.

At our table the auction escalated rapidly to six hearts and I made what seemed an obvious Lightner double. Obvious, that is, until I realised that my partner was not on lead. I tried to avoid showing any sign of embarrassment and led the nine of clubs. Partner's ace was good news, as the contract could easily have been cold with an overtrick. After an agonising wait a spade hit the table and I could breathe again. Thank you partner!

Deja Vu

Once again we were riding high in the Bath Swiss teams, until a loss in the last match led to ninth place rather than second. Just like last year, there was a difficult declarer play hand in the last round.

At our table the opponents ended in 6NT by South and I led a spade. Declarer started with a heart to the ace and another heart to the queen and king, followed by a diamond to the king and a diamond to the jack which held. After two winning finesses declarer now tried for the hat-trick, but the queen of clubs lost to the king and there was no play for the contract.

Declarer missed a better chance. After the winning diamond finesse, she should cash her winners in the majors, throwing a club from dummy. The distribution is now an open book, and if East discards a diamond declarer can exit in diamonds to force a lead into the AQ of clubs. The only chance for the defence is for East to bare the king of clubs without showing any sign of distress - not easy. Even then, declarer should play to drop the king of clubs as East is a 4 to 3 favourite to hold the king.

At the other table, Chris was also declarer in 6NT and claimed to have spotted the end play, the only problem being that he had already misguessed the hearts and had to rely on a winning club finesse and four diamond tricks. This led to two down and a loss of 2 imps on the board.

Luck of the Draw

We were rather lucky to win the Weymouth College Trophy Swiss Teams, leapfrogging the field with a 20-0 win in the last match after we had avoided playing most of the other leading teams. The decisive hand in our match against the runners up was also somewhat fortunate

That was our auction to an almost solid slam, which made with an easy overtrick when North led her singleton spade.

In the other room Hilary opened the North hand with a frisky three diamonds, not a bid you will find in many textbooks, but you cannot argue with success. Even with a view of both hands, I cannot come up with a sensible way of bidding slam and at the table they did not come close. East bid 3 hearts (for take-out, a method I would only recommend to my opponents) and West ended the auction with a jump to four spades.