Bridge Match 1 - Board 5

Board 5 – Dealer North – NS Vul

My hand: ♠ 7 3 ♥ Q J 8 ♦ J 7 4 ♣ K Q 9 5 2

Partner passes and East opens 1 spade. I'm crazy so I overcall 2 clubs. West bids 2 hearts, partner bids 3 clubs. East jumps to 4NT, alerted as ace asking for hearts. West shows 2 aces, East bids 6 hearts. Partner leads the 6 of clubs.

	North ♣ 6
		EAST ♠ A Q T 9 2 ♥ K T 6 4 3 ♦ A 3 2 ♣
	SOUTH ♠ 7 3 ♥ Q J 8 ♦ J 7 4 ♣ K Q 9 5 2

West	North	East	South
	Pass	1♠	2 ♣
2♥	3 ♣	4 NT1	Pass
5♥2	Pass	6♥	All Pass
1Ace asking for hearts
22 Aces

Declarer pitches the 2 of diamonds. I play the Q to force the A. He shifts to the 2 of hearts and partner pitches the 7 of clubs. Guess I have a trump trick now, so we need to find one more somewhere. West has two aces so we don't have any fast tricks and will need to set one up somewhere. Spades looks like a lost cause. Clubs certainly is. That leaves diamonds. If I lead low and partner has KQ we can set up a trick. If I lead the J and partner has KT we can as well, so I do that. Dummy plays the 3 on the heart trick, so I win the first one with the 8 and return the J of diamonds.

J-6-9-A.

Declarer draws two more rounds of trump, with partner pitching the 3 and 4 of clubs. Dummy shifts to spades. 2-3-K-8. 5-4-Q-7. Maybe partner has J-x left?

Dummy leads the 3 of diamonds. 3-4-K-T. So much for that plan. They cross ruff the rest. Making 6.

	NORTH ♠ J 8 6 4 ♥ ♦ Q T 9 ♣ J 8 7 6 4 3
WEST ♠ K 5 ♥ A 9 7 5 2 ♦ K 8 6 5 ♣ A T		EAST ♠ A Q T 9 2 ♥ K T 6 4 3 ♦ A 3 2 ♣
	SOUTH ♠ 7 3 ♥ Q J 8 ♦ J 7 4 ♣ K Q 9 5 2

Wow. Partner had SIX card support. Andrew would have flown in with 5 clubs instead of a wimpy 3 clubs and they wouldn't have been able to use Blackwood. We're only down 3, even, so if they just double us we make out like bandits at -800. Grr.


Professor Jack thinks 2 clubs was an overbid because it promises 4 playing tricks and I only had 3. He also thinks shifting to the J of diamonds was wrong because you're suppose to play low from Jxx and also because he'd return a trump. I can see his point about the clubs (though it should have worked) and maybe he's right that I should just return trump and see what tricks declarer can manage to lose himself.


On the replay they have a vastly different auction with lots of cue-bids terminating in West bidding blackwood instead of East. They still end up in 6 hearts. Without a crazy club bid from his partner North leads the T of diamonds. It doesn't matter as they just cross-ruff and cash aces the same as they did at my table for a push.


I decided to replay the hand as both NS and jump to 5C. Turns out East just bids 6H straight up. However, I did notice that I'd have opened the North hand. Stupid needing 2 of the top 5 to preempt... However, the bidding then goes 3C-4C-5C-6H. No matter what we do, they get to 6 hearts.

Nick: -980
Jack: -980
IMPs: +0 (1 total)