Author Topic: Super defence  (Read 2014 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline OliverC

  • Sifu
  • Administrator
  • Hog
  • *****
  • Posts: 1695
  • Karma: +19/-1
    • View Profile
    • Pigpen
Super defence
« on: July 17, 2017, 06:34:13 PM »
Samet and I combined well on the following hand, but most of the glory belongs to Samet. You are North in the following auction at Game All:

Bidding
West       North         East       South
No           1 !D (1)        1 !H       1NT(2)
No           No               2 !H       No
No           X               All Pass

(1) Nebulous Precision 1 !D
(2) 8-10 balanced

Partner leads the Ace of Spades against this contract and you can see

                        Dummy
                        !S J8743
                        !H 843
                        !D J2
                        !C J76
North
!S K652
!H Q
!D Q983
!C AK83

The Ace of Spades is followed by the 10 and Declarer's Queen falls under your King. What now?
Samet switched to the Queen of Hearts. Partner won Declarer's King with the Ace and switched again to the 10 !D, covered in Dummy, covered by your Queen and taken by Declarer's King. I think Declarer panicked a little at this poiunt, because he now played King and a small Heart, perhaps fearing a second-round Diamond ruff in my hand. I too my Heart 10 and continued Diamonds, my 7 being taken by Declarer's Ace. Instead of drawing my last trump, Declarer tried the Queen of Clubs, but Samet was equal to the task: He won with the King, cashed his winning Diamonds, cashed the Ace of Clubs and exited with his 2 !S, promoting my !H 7 as our 8th trick for +1100, which was worth a whopping 14 IMPs.

If Samet had played a Spade at trick 3 for me to ruff, Declarer has an easy loser-on-loser play and simply discards a losing Club. Switching to a Heart instead was a great play. Declarer can still do better by trying for a Diamond ruff in Dummy, but he's always in trouble by that point.

On a part-score hand where most NS Pairs are making +120, even going for -200 is going to be a poor result for EW (One enthusiastic NS Pair bid and made 3NT thanks to some appalling defence, but that was the only other score above +200 for NS and several were recording minus scores in Spade or NT contracts). Sometimes you have to trust Opps' bidding and go quietly, even when you have a 15-count
« Last Edit: July 17, 2017, 06:57:47 PM by OliverC »
Oliver