Lapsus calami(tous)
Misclicks are the bugbear of online bridge, and are normally undone in the auction, but here Ken Barnett thought he was stuck with his choice of 1S on the North hand despite the fact it was a friendly teams match.
Ken was North, and the auction was surreal, ending in 6NT when Bill Linton, South, twice believed that his partner really had spades, and cham16 was champing at the bit hoping to defend 6S. She led the KS and Ken won, cashed six rounds of clubs, finessed the queen of hearts, and threw Liz Clery (whoooosh) in with the third round of diamonds and made his contract. However, the defence could have prevailed with West baring the king of hearts to keep a spade so that the endplay was not possible.
However, there was no defence to a remarkable line of play which is possible if Ken ducks the king of spades. The defence exit with a club, and you win in South, finesse the queen of hearts, and cash all the clubs reaching this ending, rotated for convenience:
Now you lead the last club from South. West has to keep Qx in both spades and diamonds, so has to bare the jack of hearts, you throw the jack of spades, cash the ace of hearts, and cross to the king of diamonds and cash the ace of spades to squeeze East in hearts and diamonds. A compound guard squeeze, a rara avis indeed.
Misclicks are the bugbear of online bridge, and are normally undone in the auction, but here Ken Barnett thought he was stuck with his choice of 1S on the North hand despite the fact it was a friendly teams match.
Ken was North, and the auction was surreal, ending in 6NT when Bill Linton, South, twice believed that his partner really had spades, and cham16 was champing at the bit hoping to defend 6S. She led the KS and Ken won, cashed six rounds of clubs, finessed the queen of hearts, and threw Liz Clery (whoooosh) in with the third round of diamonds and made his contract. However, the defence could have prevailed with West baring the king of hearts to keep a spade so that the endplay was not possible.
However, there was no defence to a remarkable line of play which is possible if Ken ducks the king of spades. The defence exit with a club, and you win in South, finesse the queen of hearts, and cash all the clubs reaching this ending, rotated for convenience:
Now you lead the last club from South. West has to keep Qx in both spades and diamonds, so has to bare the jack of hearts, you throw the jack of spades, cash the ace of hearts, and cross to the king of diamonds and cash the ace of spades to squeeze East in hearts and diamonds. A compound guard squeeze, a rara avis indeed.
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