Bridge Match 1 - Board 49

Board 49 – Dealer North – No Vul

My hand: ♠ K Q T 6 3 2 ♥ K 5 4 ♦ A 6 ♣ 5 3

Two passes to me. I open 1 spade. West passes and partner jumps to 4 spades which gets passed out. West leads the T of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1♠
Pass	4♠	All Pass

Well, I clearly have a club loser, a diamond loser, and at least one heart loser. I'm actually pretty sure I have two heart losers, so I need to get rid of my diamond loser somehow, which would have to be by setting up the 4th heart. Not the greatest play but I don't see any other way to hold myself to 3 losers.

T-J-K-A. I draw trump. K-3 of clubs-8-4. Great. I can pick up the 4-0 split, but it does bad things to my entries. Oh well! 2-4 of clubs-A-5. 9-7-T-9 of clubs. Q-3 of hearts-5 of clubs-J.

I need to attack hearts now. 4-6-Q-A. East sends a heart over to his partner. 2-6-7-2 of diamonds. West cashes another and I ruff in. The K of hearts drops the T. I lose a heart to the J but still have a trump in hand and an entry to board with the A of diamonds. Making 4.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with the way I played the heart suit. He would start with low to the 7 instead of low to the Q. That's a good plan when West has JT for sure, but then he would have had pitched a heart from JTxx which doesn't seem likely.


On the replay partner jumps to 4 diamonds showing control in diamonds for spades. My seat bids 4 spades. West starts by leading a heart on which East takes his A without any opposing cards. So much for any problems for declarer. Hearts split 3-3 so he even gets to set up his long heart as well. Making 5 easily.

Nick: 420
Jack: 450
IMPs: -1 (-32 total)