Two Black Eights

The Mixed Pairs at the London Year End Congress was a game of two halves. The first session went well and we were lying 7th (out of 76) with 57%.  Then things went rapidly downhill. We started with a lot of boards where we got poor scores without doing much wrong, a few self-inflicted wounds did not help, and we drifted down the field to finish just above halfway.

This slam was my biggest regret - it came near the end and my partner's optimistic bidding was an attempt to recover ground from a run of poor results. Even with my maximum, 6NT is a poor contract, needing both black suits to behave with some small extra chances of a squeeze.

I won the diamond lead in dummy and cashed a top club on which East played the jack. Undecided whether to play East for a singleton or for doubleton honours, I came to hand with a diamond to lead a club up and West solved my first problem by putting in the ten. I won in dummy and played another club to establish my eight. West returned a diamond. Meanwhile East had needed to find two discards, eventually throwing a diamond and a heart after some thought.

East's thinking about her discards gave me hope that she would be squeezed in the majors, so I cashed the eight of clubs, throwing a heart from dummy, and then played off the three top spades. No cigar. East held onto her spades and I lost the last trick to West's queen of hearts for a near zero.

It was only later that I realised that I had missed an extra chance which took advantage of the eight of spades. East's pondering over her first discard strongly suggests that she started with a 4441 shape that included the jack of spades. In that case I can always take four spade tricks if West started with a doubleton nine. After cashing the eight of clubs I should have crossed to the ace of spades and advanced the ten, setting up four spade tricks regardless of whether East covered. Nothing would be lost if East started with J9xx, as I would still be able to play for the major suit squeeze.

This grand slam provided some light relief on the last round. Ann's intermediate jump overcall promised a 6-card suit, so my only decision was whether to play in what looked to be an iron-clad 7♠ or to try 7NT. I chose to go for the jackpot, though in retrospect I should probably have settled for 7♠.

I had expected a heart ruff to provide the thirteenth trick in 7♠ , but with Ann having a singleton heart there was no advantage in playing in spades, and 7NT had the unforeseen benefit of concealing my hand. I won the heart lead and ran the spades, and when a East discarded a club I was able to take 13 tricks for a top on the board.

This hand cropped up the Spectator bridge column - at one table in the open pairs West opened 4♥, North overcalled 4♠, and Zia Mahmood as East found a double! Conceding 1190 for two overtricks in 4♠ doubled was better than minus 1430 in 6♠, but still a poor board for Zia as many North-South pairs were going off in 7♠ or only scoring 500 from a 7♥ sacrifice.