Playing in a Swiss match yesterday, last match with our team doing well, I had a hand where I was in 2
making 6. Not good. But the bridge gods were watching over me. At the other table the person holding my cards was in 4
off 1.
In fact 4
can be made, but it was a lot easier for me because of the opening lead.
Here is the auction, starting on my right:
1
1
P P
2
2
P P
At our table the opening 1 !d was a possibly short Precision
showing 2 _ as they played it. Of course after the 2
cal it is unlikely that the 1
was on 2, but it seems very possible that the clubs are longer than the diamonds. My LHO led a
spot from xx, hoping for a ruff I imagine.
The NS cards:
Dummy:
: xxx
: xx
: Axxx
: QJTx
: Kx
: AQJ9xx
: Qx
: A9x.
I covered the lead of the
spot. I suppose RHO should hold back on the k but he didn't. I am making 5 if he holds off, but when he played the K I made 6. Given the auction and the high card points in my hand and dummy I can reasonably place the three missing kings and the ace of spades (their 1NT opening would have been on 14-16. So, after the opening club spot to the QKA, it was
to the board, a
finesse, then the A of
. This might or might not be dropping the K but if not I will just play another
and lose one
. one
, and one
. But the K did fall, not all that surprising on the auction, so I drew the last trump, ran the clubs tossing the
Q, and took the spade finesse for 12 tricks. basically the hand plays itself after the opening
lead.
It gets a good bit trickier on a
lead. If you play low from dummy the K will win and for all you know there might be an immediate ruff. Moreover, establishing the Q really doesn't do all that much good. So I think it hast to be: Rise with the A, finesse the
. It of course holds. Then the
A. It drops the K, The
J draws the last trump. Two
tricks and a
will give you 1+6+1+2=10 tricks. So:
A and small
to the board. You have another
so regardless of what RHO does you are getting your three black winners.
I didn't check just how it was that declarer at the other table went down, but certainly it gets touchy after the
lead. If it went small
small to the K and a
back, I think declarer has to overtake the Q and start on hearts or he goes down.
I regard my hand as right on the border between the auction that I chose and, alternatively, starting with a X and then bidding
, hopefully the 2 level will be available when it gets back to me. . Obviously it's a good hand but if partner has no bid after my 1
I think it is unlikely that we have a game anywhere. With the cards as they are, 4
can be made but wasn't.
