Opponents convention card: Dutch Acol.
Opponents playing strength: Intermediate.
My hand: ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ K Q ♦ A K 8 7 4 ♣ Q 6 4
I open a weak 1NT. Partner bids 2 hearts as a transfer to spades. East doubles for lead direction. I bid 2 spades which gets passed out. West somehow finds a heart lead and plays the 8.
NORTH ♠ A K T 9 3 ♥ J 9 5 3 ♦ 2 ♣ 9 5 3 | ||
| WEST ♥ 8 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ K Q ♦ A K 8 7 4 ♣ Q 6 4 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1NT | |||
| Pass | 2♥1 | Double2 | 2♠ |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | |
| 1Transfer | |||
| 2Lead Directional | |||
I have 3 or 4 spades, 2 hearts, and 2 diamonds. I will lose a spade or two, a heart, and 2 or 3 clubs. I guess the first thing to do is see how many of their round suit tricks they take off the top. 8-3-T-Q. The answer is 0. They are taking 0 of their tricks off the top. So I can play 2 top diamonds in order to pitch a club and then draw trump. A-5-2-6. K-9-3 of clubs-3. Switch to spades. I have no easy entries back to hand, so if I want to finesse I need to do it now. But that would only help if West has QJxx. And hurts if East has one of the honours and they're split 3-2. That seems wrong. 7-2-A-8. K-J-5-4. Huzzah! The only spade left is the big one, so off to get more tricks. Hearts seems like the place to get them. 5-A-K-2 of clubs. Yikes!
East fires back a low heart which sets up my 9. Thanks East! I lose 2 clubs and the Q of spades. Making 3.
| NORTH ♠ A K T 9 3 ♥ J 9 5 3 ♦ 2 ♣ 9 5 3 | ||
| WEST ♠ Q 4 2 ♥ 8 ♦ Q J T 9 5 ♣ A J 7 2 | EAST ♠ J 8 ♥ A T 7 6 4 2 ♦ 6 3 ♣ K T 8 | |
| SOUTH ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ K Q ♦ A K 8 7 4 ♣ Q 6 4 |
Professor Jack disagrees with my diamond play. He wants me to draw trump right when I get in. Pitching a club loser first seemed really important, but I guess I did give up on an entry to hand in order to finesse again? Of course it turns out doing that is bad news when the finesse loses and they cash 3 clubs and a heart ruff.
2 spades up one was a solo top board. 1 pair made 2 spades just in. 3 were down 1 in 2 spades. 2 were down 2 in 2 spades. And one poor pair went down 2 in 3 spades doubled.
Ranking after board 7/60: 8/16 with 53.06%.
Is it possible that Prof Jack isn't worried about the finesse, but instead thinks you should Draw Trump twice, lead diamonds twice getting the club pitch, then lead diamonds a third time to trump back to board? If nothing else, it seems that drawing trump before playing diamonds twice is basically equivalent to your line of play, except it helps against a horrible diamond split?
ReplyDelete