Perfect Timing

19th August – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.
North:
S K Q 10 4 3
H 6
D K Q J 10
C A J 5
West:
S 6
H A Q 8 4
D A 7 4 3
C Q 9 8 4
East:
S A J 8 7
H K 10 9 5 3
D 9
C 10 3 2
South:
S 9 5 2
H J 7 3
D 8 6 5 2
C K 7 6
Everyone likes to crossruff but sometimes you have to be a bit careful about what to ruff first, because danger might come from an unexpected source.
West
North
East
South
1S
No
No
Dbl
2D
3H
No
4H
End

The above sequence would seem to be about right, with West having a reasonable fourth in hand double. (Remember in this ‘protective’ position you need only have about nine points or so.) South is likely to lead a low spade and at a couple of tables at least declarer ruffed a spade in dummy before ruffing diamonds in hand. The upshot of all this was that when declarer ruffed the fourth spade South had a chance to discard a diamond and could overruff the next diamond. However if declarer plays the ace of diamonds followed by a diamond ruff immediately then game will be easy with three ruffs in each hand, the ace of spades and the ace of diamonds and the top two trumps.

2 comments:

  1. in the absence of David can somebody inform me why east would jump to 3 hearts rather than 2 ? They only had 8 pts
    Yours expectantly
    Chris S

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still here for a day or two! I agree that it is close between 2 and 3 but the hand looks to play well on a crossruff even from the bidding. It is an eight loser hand and although partner could be weaker the rewards for bidding game justify aggression.

    ReplyDelete

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