Only six pairs logged in to the Woodberry game today.
It will be difficult to continue to offer this session unless more of you play, so please give it a try.
There were several interesting hands including these two slams:
Winnie led a heart, and Stefanie must have felt quite optimistic when her 10 was taken by the Ace.
But when Anne ran all of dummy's clubs, discarding all of her major suit cards, South had to throw two diamonds in order to keep the heart king and the spade Ace. Anne was able to cash diamonds to make all 13 tricks.
I was also in the South position against the same contract. The play was similar, but declarer made the mistake of discarding two diamonds on the clubs, and was held to 12 tricks.
Board 18 was an example of how it can be unwise to double a contract, even if you are confident of defeating it:
The bidding started: 1D-1H-1S.
I then decided to bid 4NT (RKCB). After Keith showed 3 Aces, I bid 5D to ask for the spade queen.
5S denied the queen, so I signed off in 6 spades.
When Richard doubled, it seemed clear that spades would split badly, so I converted to 6NT.
I took the queen of clubs lead with the king, played a heart to the Ace, and led a diamond. Richard played low and Debbie played the queen on my jack. She then returned a club.
I took the Ace and ran my red suit winners, squeezing South in spades and diamonds.
Very nice hand, Andy. Indeed 6NT cannot be beaten on the first board, and needs a spade lead to hold it. On Winnie's unlucky heart lead, it is actually a progressive squeeze rather than a triple squeeze. If Stefanie discards the king of hearts, she gets squeezed a second time by the queen of hearts.
ReplyDeleteOn the second hand, Debbie missed a brilliant defence. When she wins the queen of diamonds, she should return a spade, interfering with declarer's communications irreparably. This dagger to the heart (or should it be spade) of the contract is pretty tough to find.
Yes Paul. I didn't spot the spade return defence (board 18) until I played back the hand on BBO. Difficult to find at the table.
DeleteHowever, my main point remains, that it is important to be wary of a double when the bidding side has an escape route or an alternative line of play.