Not The Best

4th November – Board 4: Game-All. Dealer West.


It’s not often that you fail by six tricks, vulnerable, in a freely bid game and still show a profit, but that’s exactly what happened on the deal shown above. The bidding was far from being the best but it did lead to an interesting contract….
West
North
East
South
2H
Dbl
3H
4C
No
4S
End

East was charmed of course by the turn of events because it is not often you have five trump tricks against a freely bid game. North made three trump tricks and the ace of hearts and gained an imp for his troubles when his teammates made 4H as East/West. Really South should have been more insistent with his clubs and 5C is cold, with the slam making with a right view in the diamond suit. (I know West can lead a diamond and get a spade ruff in return, but that just won’t happen.) Interestingly enough West will probably make 5H on the likely lead of the ace of spades. West ruffs the lead and in turn ruffs a club in dummy before playing another top spade, intending to throw a diamond unless South ruffs. The only defence, (I think), is for South to ruff with the ace of hearts and play a diamond. However whether or not 5H makes it would be at the very least a profitable sacrifice.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Dave
    Thank you for highlighting my plight in this hand
    It was a pretty unpleasant 5 minutes of play for me particularly having to endure the smugness of my LHO througout
    What do you think the bidding should have been for N/S?
    Cheers
    Chris S

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you did ok to be honest, but that Peter should have bid 5C immediately. It's unlikely that you had as many as six spades or you would have called them from the start. If Peter did bid 5C I can't honestly say that I would have bid 5H, although my partner might. Anyway you gained an imp on the board! Of course if we hadn't been playing weak two's then you would have had a clear run and there is no way you would then have played in spades. Goes to show how a slight preempt can churn things up. Oh gosh, better go now. Strictly Come Dancing about to start. I know it's sad!

    ReplyDelete

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