Bridge Match 1 - Board 115

Board 115 – Dealer South – EW Vul

My hand: ♠ J T 4 2 ♥ K ♦ A Q J T 7 ♣ A 5 4

I open 1 diamond. Partner responds 1 spade. I raise to 3 and he goes on to 4 which gets passed out. East leads the 3 of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
			1♦
Pass	1♠	Pass	3♠
Pass	4♠	All Pass

I have 3 spades, 2 hearts, 1 club, and 1 diamond. I have lots of ways to set up extra tricks in the minors with ruffs or finesses. As far as losers go I have a spade loser and maybe a club and maybe a diamond. My plan is to draw a couple rounds of trump, find out if spades are 3-2 or not, and then set up diamonds. 3-K-9-4. I play trump. J-3-6-A.

East shifts to a club. If I duck this then I may get ruffed back if clubs were 5-1. That doesn't seem that likely and ducking guarantees me at least 1 extra club trick. 6-4-2-7. Interesting. I go back to trump. K-2 of hearts-2-5. So West had 4 trump after all. Can I afford to draw them all? If I draw trump and finesse a diamond then even if it loses I'm only in trouble when diamonds split 5-1 as I then lose 2 diamonds and a club to go with the spade A. Or I can finesse right now. This is only bad if West ruffs? No, then I can ruff for an extra trick. Lets do that up. 5-2-T-6. Now I can make by just ruffing two diamonds in hand. A-8-4-3. 7-9-7 of spades-K. I now have 2 good diamonds, two aces, and 2 high trump as long as I don't get ruffed coming to hand to draw the last trump. I don't. Making 6.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my 3 spade bid. I'm too good to invite and he wants me to jump straight to 4 spades.


On the replay my hand jumps straight to game and North passes. At least they're on the same page, but I'd seriously consider driving to slam when I have a 13 count and partner jumps to game after my simple response. Jack fails to untangle his entries and cash his tricks properly and ends up having to lead away from Ax of clubs at the end with the stranded A of hearts having been pitched the trick earlier. He makes 5.

Nick: 480
Jack: 450
IMPs: +1 (-6 total)