Bridge Match 1 - Board 97

Board 97 – Dealer North – No Vul

My hand: ♠ K Q J 8 5 2 ♥ Q 8 7 6 ♦ J 5 ♣ K

I open 2 spades in 3rd chair. West overcalls 3 diamond and partner supports with 3 spades which gets passed out. West leads the T of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	2♠1
3♦	3♠2	All Pass
1Weak Two
2Preemptive

I have 5 spades and 1 diamond. I may get a heart and a club and it's pretty likely I can finesse for a diamond trick. Loser-wise I will lose a spade, 2 hearts, and a club for sure. I think my plan is to brute force a club and finesse a diamond and hope they set up a heart for me which they don't ruff.

T-2-K-6. East shifts to a diamond. 9-5-K-A. I now have 3 diamond tricks, assuming proper entries to board which could be a little tricky. I need to draw trump before I play around with hearts though. 4-3-K-A. West returns a diamond. T-3-9 of spades-J. So much for the 3 diamond tricks. East cashes the A of hearts, so I have 2 heart tricks now. East runs out a club, so I have a club set up too. West returns another club which doesn't get ruffed so I'm up. Down 1.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my opening bid. He thinks a stiff K is worth 3 points and therefore I should have opened 1 spade instead of 2. If partner wasn't a passed hand I would have considered it, but with partner having passed already I'm definitely preempting here. club shift and would have just cashed out hearts. Not sure what difference it makes.


On the replay my hand opens 1 spade and they end up in 4 spades. Unfortunately for me my teammates manage to find the only defense to let them make. West starts by leading a diamond which gives declarer a trick with the J. Then when he gets in with the A of spades he doesn't play a second diamond for his partner to ruff. He plays a heart over to West who then cashes the K, establishing both the Q and J for declarer. He then plays a third heart instead of a club so the defense loses their club A when declarer finesses diamonds.

Nick: -50
Jack: 420
IMPs: -10 (+4 total)