This was board 23 of the EBU Spring Simultaneous Pairs on 7th May.
Brian Senior's commentary correctly states that 6 spades cannot be made because of the identical N-S distribution. However, at Woodberry 8 out of 11 pairs in spade contracts were allowed to make 12 tricks (6 of these were in the slam).
How could this have happened?
On a club lead from West, South should draw trumps and eliminate clubs. Declarer may elect to take a heart finesse at this stage, but life is more difficult for the defence if declarer plays ace and another diamond immediately.
West must win this trick, because if East wins he will be endplayed.
If West now leads the 10H, North will cover, and the contract will be made by a finesse of the 8H.
So West instead leads 5H. North plays low, and East must play 9H to defeat the contract.
If you got this wrong, console yourself with the thought that this was a pairs competition. If you had been playing teams, a 17 IMP swing would be likely to have cost the match!
V
North
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V
West
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Board23
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V
East
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D
V
South
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19
6
4
11
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The misaligned North hand is irritating. We nearly let through 6NT when West pitched two hearts, but North did not read the position and drifted one off.
ReplyDeleteAfter declarer wins a club lead with the A, and playing four rounds of trumps (K,Q,A,10) I'm not sure that if I was West I'd keep all my hearts. I'd think I needed to keep four clubs in case declarer had four to the QC. (If I knew South was an expert I could reason that he'd then be able to finesse the 9C on the second round of clubs and make four club tricks anyway, so I should ditch my fourth club, but that would never occut to me at the table.)
ReplyDeleteEven if both defnders keep three cards in both red suits in the six card ending, when declarer then plays AD and a second diamond, how will I know to overtake my partner's JD with the KD?
I'd be scared this would just set up declarer's QD, if he had this card rather than the JH. Of course I have to reason that East will be end played in that case, as he'll oonly have hearts left. I might work that out, on a good day!
I'm glad I wasn't West.
Surely East would have signalled his length in clubs Mike.
Delete