Bridge Match 1 - Board 53

Board 53 – Dealer North – NS Vul

My hand: ♠ 7 4 ♥ A 7 6 4 ♦ A 5 4 ♣ A K T 3

Two passes to me. I open 1 NT. West overcalls 2 spades, partner passes, and East raises to 3 which gets passed out. Partner leads the Q of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1NT
2♠	Pass	3♠	All Pass

Q-7-3-5. Partner forces dummy to ruff. 6-2 of spades-T-2. Declarer shifts to a diamond. 3-4-8-K. So partner had at least 5 points and still sold out. Boo! He forces another ruff. 8-6 of spades-K-4.

Declarer starts to draw trump. J-7-A-3. And ruff the last club. 9-J-K of spades-A.

Dummy leads another low diamond. Now, either declarer has 2 diamonds left and I need to hold up or he has 1 left and I need to hop. Actually, if declarer has 2 left I can hop and give partner a ruff so I should hop in either case. 6-A-Q-2. I play another diamond and partner doesn't ruff. 5-3 of hearts-7-9. Declarer cashes another diamond. T-7 of hearts-9 of hearts-8 of spades.

A heart back, but it gets ruffed. Declarer is up. He was down if I didn't return that diamond for no reason since partner somehow had the K of hearts too. In fact, partner had a 9 count. Grr!

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my ducking the club lead. I guess if I'd won I could have started drawing trump earlier and prevented partner from screwing that up but it seems pretty obvious to me that he should switch to a trump too.

He also would have cashed the A of hearts instead of firing back a diamond. (Partner does signal high if I do so I probably fire back a heart for down 1.)


The auction on the replay is identical. My hand overtakes the club lead, but does so to cash the A of hearts. He returns a heart, North wins his K and shifts to diamonds. They have them set if South just returns a diamond to North's K. Instead he fires around another heart, allowing West to pitch his last diamond. Now it's a simple matter for declarer to crossruff the hand. Making 3.

So both teams had declarer dead to rights and failed to take advantage. I'd like to think Jack also couldn't believe his partner wouldn't act with a 9 count. Why neither defense drew trump is beyond me, though. I replayed the hand, overtook the club, and drew trump and it set them.

Nick: -140
Jack: -140
IMPs: 0 (-15 total)