Bridge Match 2 - Board 26

Board 26 – Dealer East – All Vul

Opponents convention card: Majeure cinquième
Opponents playing strength: Adequate

My hand: ♠ K 6 ♥ 8 4 2 ♦ A Q 4 2 ♣ A Q J 9

I open 1 diamond in second seat. West overcalls 1 spade, partner bids 2 diamonds, and East doubles showing hearts and clubs. I move on to 3 diamonds which gets passed out.

West leads the K of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1♦
1♠	2♦	Double1	3♦
Pass	Pass	Pass
1Competitive

I have 4 diamonds, 1 heart, and 3 clubs. I need to find one more trick somewhere. It can be picking up the K of clubs, or the K of diamonds, or by getting my K of spades, or by ruffing a spade in hand. As far as losers go I could end up losing a diamond, 3 spades, a heart, and a club. One spade is easy to get rid of but I need to get one of those Ks to work to get rid of something else. Or I guess I can pitch a heart on the 4th club if things really work out well? I decide to win the first trick. K-A-7-2. I need to draw trump; might as well finesse it. J-3-2-K. West shifts to a club. 8-T-K-A. Well, that makes things easy. I can now draw trump and run clubs to pitch that heart loser. I do just that and West pitches two spades in the process.

I'm not going to be stuck playing spades myself I think. I could give up a heart to force them to lead spades by ruffing a heart, playing a diamond back, and exiting a diamond. But that feels bad. West bid spades so they should each have 3 spades left. East showed a bunch of points with his double and has only shown up with 3 so far. He probably has the A of spades? So I should probably ruff a heart to board and lead a spade through East. I do that and East hops with the A. I'm up. Making 5.

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

3 diamonds up 2 is a solo top board. 1 EW pair played and made 2 hearts. The other 6 tables played 1NT. Half made just in and the other half went down. Chalk these 14 MPs up to playing weak NT!

Captain Jack agrees with me all the way!

Ranking after board 26/60: 7/16 with 52.20%