The National Pairs qualifier was one of those sessions where we kept on getting poor scores without doing too much wrong, and we finished well down the field. But this was a missed opportunity for a neat play.
I should have had a sixth heart for my 3♥ bid, but it seemed very likely that the opponents could make 2♠ or 3♣ and I wanted to make life difficult for them. On the actual hand this was the wrong thing to do, as 3♥ should go down and the only making contract for East-West is 2NT, which they were never going to find.
West started with top clubs; I ruffed and advanced ♦J, covered by the queen, king and ace. East returned the ♦9 which I won to play a third round. West ruffed this and erred by playing a spade to the king and ace. (A trump exit would have given me no chance.)
This was now the position
I had already lost three tricks and still appear to have a trump and a spade to lose. But I should play king and ace of hearts, ruff a club, cash the ♠Q and ruff the last diamond. Now a club from dummy allows me to score the last trump en passant. The losing spade and trump both fall on the last trick, and two losers are condensed into one - a trump elopement.
Sad to say, I omitted to ruff a club when I was in dummy with the ace of trumps. The elopement had eloped and only resurfaced in the pub afterwards. Could've, should've.
Tuesday 29 January 2013
County KO
The half time score in our county KO match read 41-40 after 12 boards of wild hands and gratuitous errors from both sides. I had two interesting 4♠ contracts to play. One I got wrong and it cost us a big swing, on the other I managed to avoid messing up but my play made little difference to the score. Such is life.
East's 2NT was Lebensohl, showing a weakish hand with a long minor. My 4♠ was a bit rose-tinted, but I had no way to make a game try as 3♠ would just be competing the part score. East gave this a little look before his final pass.
West started with ♣AK and I ruffed. Now I ran the ♠Q, hoping to squash a singleton 10, but this lost and East returned a heart. (A trump to the jack would have been better as it would keep entries fluid and still allow me to pick up a single 10 with East.) I ducked, West won the queen and returned the king to my ace. Now I drew a round of trumps and both followed. If hearts are 3-3 I can avoid the diamond guess, so I came back to my hand with a trump and ruffed a heart, but East showed out. I now needed to find the diamond queen - it looked as if East's shape was 3-2-3-6 in which case the diamonds were 3-3, and West had already shown up with 12 points, so it appeared to be a 50-50 guess. Needless to say I got this wrong by leading a diamond from dummy and finessing the 10.
It was only afterwards that I remembered East's little hesitation before passing 4♠. He could only be thinking of a sacrifice in 5♣, in which case he probably has at least seven clubs and West has four or more diamonds. I should cash dummy's last trump, which squeezes West in the red suits, so that a later diamond finesse will see me home.
In the other room West opened 1♦ and North was declarer. A diamond lead gave declarer an easy ride.
I was a bit more awake on this hand.
West led ♥Q to the ace. The bidding marks East with all of the remaining high cards, so you should resist the temptation to cash another top heart and play a diamond up. Then play another diamond when you are in dummy with the king of trumps. If you cash another heart at trick 2 and West ruffs, you can only lead diamonds once from dummy and will go down if East has more than three diamonds.
I made 4♠, but my play was almost irrelevant. The ♥Q was a singleton, but East started with ♦AQx so I could still have recovered even after trying to cash a heart at trick 2. And in the other room the opponents had a mix-up and lost 1100 in 5♥ doubled, so that the difference between making 4♠ and going one down was only 3 imp.
The second half was somewhat less volatile and we won by 25 imp.
East's 2NT was Lebensohl, showing a weakish hand with a long minor. My 4♠ was a bit rose-tinted, but I had no way to make a game try as 3♠ would just be competing the part score. East gave this a little look before his final pass.
West started with ♣AK and I ruffed. Now I ran the ♠Q, hoping to squash a singleton 10, but this lost and East returned a heart. (A trump to the jack would have been better as it would keep entries fluid and still allow me to pick up a single 10 with East.) I ducked, West won the queen and returned the king to my ace. Now I drew a round of trumps and both followed. If hearts are 3-3 I can avoid the diamond guess, so I came back to my hand with a trump and ruffed a heart, but East showed out. I now needed to find the diamond queen - it looked as if East's shape was 3-2-3-6 in which case the diamonds were 3-3, and West had already shown up with 12 points, so it appeared to be a 50-50 guess. Needless to say I got this wrong by leading a diamond from dummy and finessing the 10.
It was only afterwards that I remembered East's little hesitation before passing 4♠. He could only be thinking of a sacrifice in 5♣, in which case he probably has at least seven clubs and West has four or more diamonds. I should cash dummy's last trump, which squeezes West in the red suits, so that a later diamond finesse will see me home.
In the other room West opened 1♦ and North was declarer. A diamond lead gave declarer an easy ride.
I was a bit more awake on this hand.
West led ♥Q to the ace. The bidding marks East with all of the remaining high cards, so you should resist the temptation to cash another top heart and play a diamond up. Then play another diamond when you are in dummy with the king of trumps. If you cash another heart at trick 2 and West ruffs, you can only lead diamonds once from dummy and will go down if East has more than three diamonds.
I made 4♠, but my play was almost irrelevant. The ♥Q was a singleton, but East started with ♦AQx so I could still have recovered even after trying to cash a heart at trick 2. And in the other room the opponents had a mix-up and lost 1100 in 5♥ doubled, so that the difference between making 4♠ and going one down was only 3 imp.
The second half was somewhat less volatile and we won by 25 imp.
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