So, this weekend included almost nothing but bridge, watching golf, and baseball. It was kind of nice, actually, once I got over the disastrous first 3 rounds Saturday morning at the Macon club. I'll blame it on being in the morning. Anyway, here's a defensive hand that I should have beaten but did not. I led 4th best spade against 1NT, declarer taking partner's Q with the A. She then cashed 3 hearts, and led a club. Partner inserted the J and declarer won. I paused for a couple of seconds, thinking that maybe it's right to play the K, but followed low. Next was a diamond to the Q and a diamond back to the K. Now I had no choice but to play K and another spade, giving declarer her 7th trick with the SJ. Yes, declarer could have played the hand better but I should have figured out to unblock the CK. Normally splitting the honors there wouldn't be right with a likely diamond entry to dummy but partner knows that I need to know how he could get in again to lead spades through declarer, and that should help. Declarer has shown up with 3 aces and the presumes SJ so must have the missing DK and maybe or maybe not the DJ. And I don't want to be on lead anyway. If another club comes next, I would be forced to break diamonds, which gives declarer a trick, or lead spades, which also gives declarer a trick. And if he plays diamonds next, I would have to take air with the first diamond or take the 2nd and 3rd round of diamonds and again have to lead a spade into declarer's jack. So, thinking it through a little more, it is clear to play the CK under the A. It seems like a strange time to have to stop and think for awhile, but I guess it's appropriate.
Final tally: +55 imps in 172 hands: 44 hands with Sean, 13 w/ Val, 30 w/ Carol, 8 w/ Harlan, 19 w/ Ramesh, 17 w/ Gideon, 12 money hands with robots, 21 w/ Bob, and 28 w/ Emory. And this time the best results were with Emory (+69 imps in 28 deals), as should be the case. In addition, much time was spent at the partnerhsip bidding table testing out new methods for our canapé system and sort of teaching it to others.
I like that hand a lot. 1NT contracts are nasty. Your partner made a really nice play to split his honors--otherwise declarer can play the ten of clubs, win the next club, and play on diamonds (low to Q then low to K); you'll have to give declarer a second spade trick. It's not about showing you where his entry is--it's about scotching declarer's avoidance play in clubs. If declarer's clubs were AT98 it would be really spectacular for the correct play on the club trick to be x, J, A, K.
ReplyDeleteThis only works because declarer set up your seventh trick in hearts, though. If he just plays diamonds right away (diamond to Q, diamond to K), and ducks your eventual club switch, he's cold.
right..
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