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.