4th November – Board 3: E/W Vul. Dealer South.
I wonder how many pairs reached 6NT on the hand shown above, and if any of those who did made it. The key card in the West hand is the king of spades because it solidifies the suit, but that is hard for East to assess especially when it is known to be a singleton. We bid it as follows:-
West
|
North
|
East
|
South
|
|
|
|
No
|
1C
|
No
|
1D
|
No
|
1H
|
No
|
1S
|
No
|
2D
|
No
|
3NT
|
End
|
1S was fourth suit and West completed a picture of his hand by showing delayed diamond support, indicating almost certainly a singleton spade. Maybe 3NT was a bit agricultural but the hands did not seem to be fitting well although in fact all of West’s cards were pulling their weight. On a small spade lead declarer should play a low club from dummy. North should refuse the king of course but now declarer ducks a club completely and in the fullness of time will come to four spades, two hearts, two diamonds and four clubs. It is better to play clubs this way rather than take a more conventional finesse because North might have started with king doubleton. That holding in the South hand would do declarer no good at all.
Katie and I got to 6N (-1C-1S-1N-3D-3N-6N is the way I remember it. I then got excited about the hart lead setting up winners and ran out of entries, for the spades I think. Down one.
ReplyDeleteI see. Yes, on a heart lead you only need to make two clubs without losing one because then you would have four spades, three hearts, three diamonds - even if you lose one in the process - and two clubs. As you would be in hand (W) after the lead it looks easier to play a low club towards the queen, but I guess that didn't happen. :-(
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