My hand: ♠ T 9 5 ♥ K 8 6 3 ♦ A 9 5 ♣ T 9 8
Partner opens 1 spade. I raise to 2. Partner bids 3 clubs which is presumably some sort of help suit game try. My hand is terrible, so I bid 3 spades which gets passed out.
East leads the 2 of diamonds.
NORTH ♠ A K J 3 2 ♥ T 5 2 ♦ Q ♣ A Q 6 5 | ||
| EAST ♦ 2 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ T 9 5 ♥ K 8 6 3 ♦ A 9 5 ♣ T 9 8 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | 1♠ | Pass | 2♠ |
| Pass | 3♣ | Pass | 3♠ |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
I have 4 spades, 1 club, and 1 diamond. Theoretically I can pick up extra tricks in every suit with finesses but I need 3 of them to come home. Unfortunately I have no entries to board at all, except the ace of diamonds and if I use that as an entry I can't finesse diamonds. I could also get a trick from the 4th heart, or the 4th club, or ruff the 4th club. Or I could dummy reversal and ruff 3 red cards on board.
Loserwise I'm going to lose maybe a spade, 2 or 3 hearts, 1 or 2 clubs, and maybe 1 diamond.
I think I'm going to go way down if the heart finesse isn't on, but I'm going to go for it. I play low. 2-5-K-Q. West returns a diamond. Huzzah! J-2 of hearts-4-A. I ruff my last diamond. 9-T-2 of spades-7.
I cash one round of trump just to see if the Q drops. A-4-5-7. I play a heart but don't even need to finesse. 5-A-3-9. East returns another heart. 4-K-Q-T. I like the look of that queen. I play another heart. 6-3 of diamonds-3 of spades-7.
Given that I pretty much have to lead a club off board, is there any layout I can play for that's favourable? Well, I'm pretty sure East started with 3 diamonds and 4 hearts, so he had 6 black cards. He signaled an odd number of spades, so he should be 3-3 in the black suits. That means West also has 3 clubs. If East has both honours and I duck a club he wins and returns the last heart. I ruff, draw trump, and have to lose the last two tricks for down 1 unless West has the Q of spades. Which he actually probably does with them both not bidding.
If the honours are split I have no play.
If West has both honours I need to play anything but the A to start.
So, I lead low. 5-2-T-J. West returns a trump. I hop with the K since I can't see any winning line with finessing. 6-K-Q-T. Interesting. So East had only 2 spades. He must then have 4 clubs. Maybe I can drop West's now stiff K. A-7-8-3. Oh well. I duck a club. 6-4-9-K. I guess the wrong assumption was that diamonds split 5-3. West returns a diamond into a ruff and sluff and I get the last two tricks on a cross-ruff. Making 3.
| NORTH ♠ A K J 3 2 ♥ T 5 2 ♦ Q ♣ A Q 6 5 | ||
| WEST ♠ 8 7 6 ♥ Q 9 ♦ K J T 6 3 ♣ K J 3 | EAST ♠ Q 4 ♥ A J 7 4 ♦ 8 7 4 2 ♣ 7 4 2 | |
| SOUTH ♠ T 9 5 ♥ K 8 6 3 ♦ A 9 5 ♣ T 9 8 |
Professor Jack disagrees with ruffing the heart at the end. He wants me to just finesse clubs which is probably right since I had a hard time finding a winning play after running a heart, though if they split 3-3 it would have been ok-ish. Maybe.
On the replay West gets into the auction by bidding 3 diamonds over 2 spades. North just blasts straight to 4 spades. East leads a diamond like before. Declarer ducks like I did, losing to the K. West switches to a club, ducked to the 8. Declarer cashes the diamond, pitching a heart. He then finesses in spades, losing to the Q. East cashes the A of hearts but declarer knows the club suit is working so his hand is up. Making 4.
Nick: 140
Jack: 420
IMPs: -7 (-27 total)
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