Bridge Match 2 - Board 12

Board 12 – Dealer West – NS Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Adequate

My hand: ♠ J 9 6 5 ♥ 8 3 ♦ A Q J 7 ♣ A J 8

West opens 1 spade. Partner passes. East bids 2 clubs. I have a decent hand, but no viable bid. West bids 2 hearts which is alerted as being forcing. East goes to 2 spades. West continues to 4 spades. I like my hand for defending 4 spades, but I don't think I can double. Partner leads the 6 of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
1♠	Pass	2♣	Pass
2♥1	Pass	2♠	Pass
4♠	Pass	pass	Pass
1Forcing

Hmm. Am I supposed to hop and draw trump here so they can't ruff all declarer's diamond losers? Or should I be trying to establish my own ruffs in hearts? I think I like drawing trump. 6-5-A-2. I switch to spades. 5-4-4 of diamonds-7. Interesting. Declarer switches to clubs. Am I again supposed to hop and draw trump? Should I be happy that he's stuck ruffing with such high trump now? Probably. 3-8-2 of spades-7.

Hmm. Hmm some more. Declarer has a club void. And now he's playing hearts. Q-9-5-8. After that one round of hearts he ruffs a diamond. 3-8-Q of spades-7. And then a club. 4-J-8 of spades-2. And a diamond. T-9-A of spades-J. Now a heart back to hand. 7-3-A-6. Another. K-4-T-?

Should I ruff here? Declarer is down to 3 trump in hand. The K-T-3, specifically. I don't see how I can take 3 tricks, especially not if I give him this one now. So I ruff. Partner ends up winning a heart trick on turn 11, which forces him to finesse me out of my J of spades. Making 4.

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

6 of the 8 pairs played 4 spades making 4. Two of them played 4 spades making 5. By holding them to 4 we get 9 MPs.

Captain Jack agrees with me all the way! Two in a row, baby!

Ranking after board 12/60: 9/16 with 50.60%.