Bridge Match 1 - Board 61

Board 61 – Dealer North – All Vul

My hand: ♠ 9 4 ♥ A K J 9 5 ♦ A 9 8 6 ♣ A 9

I open one heart in third seat. Partner jumps to three hearts. I figure I can afford to make one good slammy move, so I bid 4 clubs. Partner retreats to four hearts and I pass. West leads the 7 of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1♥
Pass	3♥	Pass	4♣1
Pass	4♥	All Pass
1Control in clubs for hearts

I have 4 hearts, 1 spade, 1 diamond, and 3 clubs. I need a 10th trick which can come from picking up the Q of hearts, by somehow ruffing a diamond on board, or by setting up a club trick. Unfortunately this is quite a good lead for the defense as it knocks out my only non-club entry to board.

I have a spade loser, 2 diamond losers, and potentially a heart loser. If clubs split 4-3 then I can pitch my losing spade. If they split 5-2 then I need to pick up the Q of hearts or go down, though that does become easier to do if they ruff my Q of clubs. I also may be able to manufacture an entry to board in hearts with the T of hearts. I think my plan is to run clubs and pitch my spade and see what develops from there.

7-A-6-9. Over to clubs. 2-3-A-4. Now that I count a little closer I see that, in fact, the opponents only have 6 clubs so they won't be splitting 4-3 or 5-2 at all. Both opponents signaled an odd number of clubs so the odds of 3-3 seem pretty good. Might as well go for it I guess... 9-T-K-5. Q-6-4 of spades-J.

Ok, so my clubs are good if I can both get rid of trumps and end up on board which seems hard to do. I do still have the diamond ruff to fall back on if I want here, or I can play a club and hope for the triple ruff or pitch a diamond and force West in which will let me pick up Qxx in West. But he can just not overruff in that case so I think that would be playing for opponent misdefense. I think it's diamond time.

But wait, if I don't finesse hearts now I never get to, so I could be throwing away the contract when East has Qxx. I could also ruff a spade to eliminate that exit and then throw them in with the diamonds hoping to get a good heart lead. Sure, lets try that and see what happens.

2-5-5 of hearts-3. Now to diamonds. 6-3-J-Q. West returns the K of diamonds. K-A-7-2. I exit a diamond. 9-T-5-4. My diamond is now high, so I'm good. West returns the K of spades. I ruff with the T of hearts. K-T of hearts-J-8 of diamonds. Guess it doesn't matter that the 8 of diamonds was high...

Now it's just a matter of picking a heart play. If West has stiff Q or Qx then I should play for the drop. If East has specifically Qxx then I should finesse. Qxx in East is 3/5ths of 1/2 of 68% or 20%. West has Q 1/5th of 1/2 of 28% or 2.8%. West has Qx in 2/5ths of 1/2 of 68% or 13.6%. 20 vs 16.4 means I should finesse, so I do. It works. Making 5.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my club bid, and would just settle for 4 hearts. Considering partner had a good 10 count which loved my club A and we only made five he may be right. On the other hand, all I need to do is play for 2-3 hearts and 3-3 clubs and I do make 6...

Later on, Jack disagrees with my decision to attack clubs. He wants me to just draw trump which can't be right when they have 7 clubs but just might be when they only have 6... Along the same vein, he disagrees with my second club play as well.


On the replay North jumps straight to 4 hearts on his own. West starts by attacking diamonds. Declarer immediately cashes the top two hearts which gives the opposition a heart trick. They eventually get a diamond as well for up one.

Nick: 650
Jack: 650
IMPs: 0 (+13 total)