In the second round of the Gold Cup we managed to end a losing streak against Jeremy Baker's team that had lasted for over ten years, winning a closely fought match by 14 imp. Even though it cost us a lot of points, this was the most interesting hand. East dealt at Game All and both Wests (I was one of them) chose to open 3 clubs in 3rd seat.
At my table North doubled, South bid 3 spades and North rebid 3NT. Declarer ducked the club lead and, with no future in clubs, I switched to a heart to try and attack dummy's entry. Declarer won in hand with the Ace, played Ace and another spade to dummy's Jack, then finessed the Queen of diamonds. East took this and returned a heart but declarer could win, cross to hand and lead another spade, setting up the spades with the Jack of diamonds as an entry. It would not help East to duck the diamond, as declarer could play a spade while the king of hearts was still in dummy.
At the other table South bid an optimistic 4 spades, but North was aware of his partner's rose-tinted spectacles and passed where some would have made a slam try. 4 spades is a much trickier proposition than 3NT, and it's not easy to see how to make it without taking some unlikely double-dummy plays (such as ducking the first club or finessing the 10 of hearts). However, the line shown on the diagram (click on 'Next' to follow the play through) seems a reasonable way to play the hand.
The key play is the low spade lead at trick 2. If you play Ace and another spade East can win and then West plays two rounds of clubs. East can overruff dummy and exit with his last trump, and wait to make the king of diamonds.
On the suggested play, if East goes up with the King of trumps at trick 2 and West plays two rounds of clubs, this still promotes a second trump trick for East. The difference is that he can now be endplayed with his last trump and forced to lead a red suit so that declarer avoids a diamond loser.
Apart from this hand, I felt that we had more than our fair share of the luck, but who's complaining?
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