Thursday, October 29, 2009

Winning a Beer Declaring 1S

Most days I don't pay any attention to the beer card - I mean, it's just some ordinary spot card, but tonight I was noticing opportunities to win a beer. (In case you don't know, if you win trick 13 with the 7 of diamonds without taking an inferior line of play to do so, your partner owes you a beer.)

So, I think tonight was the first time I consciously did that. It was the last round in a 4 table game at the Robins club and Joel and I were around 70% (we finished 69.64%) and playing the 2nd best pair in the room. Here is the hand:


Dlr: W
Vul: All
x
QTxxx
8xxx
AKx
AK9xxx
Kx
AQ9
xx
Tx
Jx
JT764
QTxx
QJxx
Axxx
K
Jxxx

I opened 1S and got to play it there. North led a low heart and south continued a heart at trick 2. I then played AK of spades and then A of diamonds. Seeing the good break, I led a 3rd round of spades, which south won and made me ruff a heart. I gave south his last spade, and he made me ruff another heart. Now dummy's clubs were all gone and all I needed to do was play the Q of diamonds, diamond to the J, 10, and 7. Granted, the defense could have cashed 2 clubs at any point and then led more hearts to prevent me from being able to score the 7 of diamonds at the end, but I think this still counts. It's not totally obvious to south that pumping me isn't the right defense. North could have had the Q of diamonds and only 1 club honor, right? Maybe.

1 comment:

  1. Your definition of the BEER CARD is not quite accurate.
    In order to claim your beer, you must both win trick 13 with the diamond 7 AND go plus on the hand. You can win a beer on defense if you defeat the contract, but the more usual occurence is on offense.

    ReplyDelete