Had an interesting session with Eszter today. She found a nice endplay for an additional overtrick on this hand:
Love All, Dealer WestSouth (Dummy) 75
K1084
AKJ62
AK
North AKJ2
Q2
1097
J732
BiddingWest North East SouthNo 1NT
(1) No 2NT
(2)No 3
No 3
(3)X 3NT All Pass
(1) Transfer to Diamonds
(2) Game-forcing, 2nd suit
East duly led the
6 against 3NT, which was allowed to run round to Declarer's Queen, West inserting the 5. Eszter started on the Diamonds straight away, running the 10, which held. On the 9, West showed out and discarded a small Club, and on the run of the rest of the Diamonds West discarded a Club, the
7 and the
3. On the last Diamond, East discarded the
10.
Eszter now cashed the Ace and King of Clubs (West followed low and East played the
9 and then the
4. Now the AK of Spades, West contributing the 10 and then discarding the
9. West now now marked with a 5-5 in Clubs and Hearts and was clearly down to the
Queen, so Eszter exited with the
7, forcing West to lead away from the AJ of Hearts.
Nice Work!!!!
Another opportunity for an endplay had fallen to me on the previous hand:
Game All, Dealer SouthNorth (Dummy) Q94
KQ94
A742
102
South A52
AJ865
Q3
653
BiddingSouth West North East1
X 2
(1) No
2
No 3
(2) All Pass
(1) Transfer to Diamonds (MOTOR)
(2) 3-level limit raise with a control feature in Diamonds (shortage or suit)
I did consider bidding 4
because of my useful partial fit in Diamonds (it didn't seem likely that Eszter had a
shortage), but in the end my minimum values and semi-balanced shape persuaded me otherwise.
West, who was marked with most of the outstanding HCP, led the Spade 7. I rose with Dummy's Queen, which held. I led the Heart King, on which West showed out, discarding a small Diamond, so I switched to the Club 2. East onw this trick with the 7 and led another Heart, which ran round to Dummy's 9. Another Club, won by East's Queen, and a 3rd round of Hearts, which I won with the 8 in my hand a ruffed a Club with Dummy's last trump. On the 3 Heart tricks, West had discarded 2 Diamonds and a Spade and followed to all 3 Club tricks with the 4, 8 and Jack.
I now led a Spade to my Ace (East played low) and West played the 10. The Ace and Jack of Hearts followed, on which West played the
King and then the
9 and East the
10 and then the
Ace.
At this stage I'd won 8 tricks, and the position was now
North (Dummy) -
-
A74
-
South 5
-
Q3
-
East has shown up with the
AQ which pretty much means that West had to have everything else to justify their Double of 1
. I could be fairly certain that West was left with the
K and
Kx (which was, in fact, the case). If I was in 4
, I would have endplayed West for sure, but needing only the Ace of Diamonds I didn't bother.
In practice I am always cold for 9 tricks even if I try the endplay and it doesn't work, since there were only 2 Spades left (K and J) so even if one defender has both, they still have to give me a Diamond trick at the end, as all of the Clubs and Hearts have been played. I might as well have tried the endplay that I knew was working, therefore - silly me!