In our Swiss match against the Granovetters in the Charlotte regional flight A Swiss yesterday, I was fortunate to get to declare this deal.
Dealer: E Vul: EW | North ♠ Axxx ♥ xxx ♦ x ♣ Jxxxx | |
South ♠ K9 ♥ Qx ♦ AKQxxx ♣ KTx |
East | South | West | North |
2♥ | 3♦ | Pass | Pass |
Pass | |||
West, Matthew Granovetter, led the ♥A, then after a couple of minutes continued with the deuce of clubs to Pamela's ace. She cashed the ♥K with west discarding a spade, then continued with the ♥J. How do you play from here?
You can only afford to lose one more trick and that's almost surely going to be a trump because west is a heavy favorite to have 4 or more diamonds. The club finesse is almost sure to lose as well so it looks like a black suit squeeze is in order and should be fairly easy to execute if he has the expected 5-1-4-3 shape.
Ruff the heart low – it can't gain to discard or to ruff high. West over-ruffed and thought for a couple of minutes before shifting to a spade, which I won in hand and then ran trumps. If west doesn't over-ruff, play your top diamonds and throw west in with a diamond. If he leads a club the hand is over; if he leads a spade, win in hand, cash the last diamond, and the ♣K. In either case you come down to the same 3-card ending.
Dealer: E Vul: EW | North ♠ Ax ♥ ♦ ♣ J | |
West ♠ QT ♥ ♦ ♣ Q | East ♠ x ♥ x ♦ ♣ x | |
South ♠ x ♥ ♦ x ♣ T |
West cannot hold both the ♣Q and keep spades guarded. When south leads the last diamond, pitch a club from dummy. This is a rather elementary squeeze but it could have been broken up by either repeated spade leads or a club continuation by east at trick 4, after taking the ♥K. It just looks and feels so right to tap declarer, possibly promoting a trump trick for partner.
If his reputation is accurate, you should be grateful that he only thought for a "couple of minutes"!
ReplyDeleteI would think that once he switches to a club, she should continue. If he had promotable trumps and wanted a heart continuation, he could have done it himself at trick 2. Even I might foresee the squeeze if you have the black kings, and she is a far better player than I will ever be.
There were a couple of times he thought more like 5 minutes. But it's not annoying because at least he plays quickly when the play is easy/straightforward.
ReplyDeleteI guess you overlooked the fact that he showed out on the 2nd heart so the inference of no heart continuation doesn't apply.
Oh, my fault. Didn't expect her to open a weak two with seven to the KJT, even red against white. Yes, now it's not so obvious.
ReplyDeleteAt trick two he, should lead a trump if it still allowed him to his natural trump trick. Then the squeeze is broken.
ReplyDelete