Bridge Match 2 - Board 4

Board 4 – Dealer West – All Vul

Opponents convention card: Majeure cinquième.
Opponents playing strength: Adequate.

My hand: ♠ 6 4 ♥ Q T 3 2 ♦ J T 4 ♣ T 8 6 2

West opens 2 clubs, strong. East responds 2 diamonds showing 0-7 points. West bids 2NT showing no long major and a cap of 23 points. East bids 3NT denying a 4 card major and denying a truly terrible hand. West asks for aces, East says 0 or 3, and West settles into an odd 6 diamond contract.

I'm on lead. I know partner has long spades since everyone else denied having them. So I'm tempted to lead a spade here. I'm also pretty sure partner has an ace somewhere since East doesn't have any and West probably wouldn't have asked if he had all four. I could also lead a trump to cut down on potential ruffs in East's hand, but I expect they're double fit in the minors so I don't know what he's ruffing. I decide to go with a spade.

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

West	North	East	South
2♣1	Pass	2♦2	Pass
2NT	Pass	3NT	Pass
4NT3	Pass	5♣4	Pass
6♦	Pass	Pass	Pass
1Forcing
20-7 points
3Ace asking for NT
40 or 3 aces

6-2-K-5. Turns out West does have all four aces. And four spades. I certainly knew that was possible (he only denied having 5+ with the 2NT bid) but I figured he was bidding crazy with a known double fit. With a 5-4-2-2 'minimum' and no fit at all I'm very surprised with his bidding. We won the first trick, which is a good start. 1 down, 1 to go!

Partner returns the T of spades, probably hoping I lead a singleton. T-7-4-J. Declarer draws 2 rounds of trump with everyone following and then cashes the A of hearts. A-9-5-2. He goes back and draws that last round of trump, with partner pitching the 7 of clubs. A spade to his Q, then he lead the J of clubs around to partner's K. Declarer has the K of hearts, so he's up now. Down 1.

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

Ok, I'm a little confused here. East's first bid showed 0-7 points. He clearly has 8 points. A smelly distribution, sure, but he has 8 points. He had reasonable plays to make the contract and got a little unlucky that both black Ks were offside. I feel West got very lucky to find East with more points than he promised and 3 diamonds for a trump fit. It was entirely reasonable for me to have a natural trump trick on the bidding with JTxx.

Captain Jack disagreed with the low heart and low club I played the first time those suits were lead, because I showed the wrong count. Sorry, Jack! Definitely my bad. Keep yelling at me, maybe I'll get better.


Every single other EW pair made their contracts, so we get a top on this board for putting them down 1. Interestingly enough one pair made 6 diamonds and another made 6 diamonds doubled. Did North lead away from a K or something? Or maybe there's an endplay? I don't see it, unless North pitches badly. He can always return the black suit he wins I think?

Ranking after board 4/60: 13/16 with 28.57%.