Trump Tricks

For a change, here is a part-score.

E-W game, dlr E (hands rotated)

            ♠ J 7 3 2
            ♥ K 10 8
            ♦ 9 5 3 2
            ♣ K J
♠ K Q 10 8 5            ♠ 4
♥ J 5 4 3 2   [ ]       ♥ A 7 6
♦ Q 10                  ♦ A K 7 6
♣ 8         ♠ A 9 6     ♣ 10 7 5 4 2
            ♥ Q 9
            ♦ J 8 4
            ♣ A Q 9 6 3

1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass
2♣ Pass 2♦ All Pass

Q♥ led.

As you can see, this hand wasn’t a triumph for the E-W bidding style. If they can play a heart contract, they may make quite a few tricks. Dealer’s strange decision to open resulted in the heart suit being cut out entirely. Sitting South, I gave passing thought to a 2♣ overcall, but managed to let sanity prevail. Naturally I was pleased with that choice as the bidding continued.

The play was fairly bizarre, much as with the bidding. Declarer won at trick one and led a spade. I hopped up with the A♠ in order to play my second heart through dummy. For some reason, partner didn’t want to take all his winners, so he won that trick with the K♥ and returned the 10♥ next. I was naturally a bit puzzled by this, but all I could do was ruff and play a spade. Declarer took two club discards on the KQ♠, and got out of dummy with a club.

Partner was perhaps a little surprised that his J♣ was “allowed” to win, and he continued with J♠, ruffed low by declarer and over-ruffed by my 8♦. I exited with a club, ruffed in dummy, and declarer played a heart, ruffed by my partner and over-ruffed high by declarer so that he could ruff his last club in dummy with the Q♦, partner under-ruffing. On the next lead, he over-ruffed partner’s 5♦ with the 7♦, and I topped them both with the J♦, leaving declarer’s A♦ to win the last trick over partner’s 9♦.

Down one, but consideration of the score was over-shadowed by my realization that partner, holding four trumps, and at one point having more trumps than declarer, had not managed to take a trump trick. He was over-ruffed or forced to under-ruff four times. By contrast, my modest J84 holding had produced no less than three tricks. By the time I stopped laughing, a new E-W and new boards were in place.

Back again

Just to get back to posting, here is a recent slam.

Love all, dlr S (hands rotated)

♠ A Q
♥ A 3
♦ A J 3 2
♣ K 10 7 3 2

[ ]

♠ K 6 3
♥ K Q 9 6 4
♦ 10 9 7
♣ A Q

1♥  Pass 2♣  Pass
2NT Pass 6NT All Pass

9♠ led.

6NT was perhaps a little over-enthusiastic, but we hadn’t been holding many cards so partner was excited to have so much. Truthfully, 3NT seems a little pusillanimous, and if she bid 4NT, I would have raised to 6NT anyway, so perhaps it was best to just get the auction over.

The play was fairly routine, although it seems that hardly anybody made twelve tricks. There are ten top tricks, and clubs, diamonds and hearts all provide chances of developing the two others needed. I don’t know how to calculate the odds, since it seems to me that the various distributions are not independent, but I would say my chances have to be distinctly better than 50%, given that the spade lead hasn’t damaged my communications. I took the A♠, the AQ♣, and passed the 10♦ to the Q♦. A second spade did no harm, but no other return is any better. I was able to cash the K♣, finding them 4-2 with the J♣ outstanding to my left, then try the AKQ♥, finding them 4-2 with the J♥ outstanding to my right. After the K♠, a second diamond finesse brought home two extra tricks, the honors being split and the suit breaking 3-3 (although if it had been breaking worse, the long cards would have been squeezed anyway). Repeated heart leads from the defence would have broken up the squeeze position, and left me with some difficult choices as to how to play, almost certainly going down. But a heart opening lead into my bid suit is too much to ask of any defence.