Here is a hand that challenged both the defenders and declarer.
Look at the hand and decide if you want to defend or declare.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #35
Dlr
E
Vul
Both
J107
KQ1042
7
KQ95
AK4
A963
K109
J84
62
J85
8643
10732
Q9853
7
AQJ52
A6
West
North
East
South
Pass
1
DBL
RDBL
Pass
2
Pass
4
All Pass
BIDDING: After South
opened the bidding, sitting in the West chair I could either overcall a
bold 1NT or make a takeout
double. Holding four hearts I decided the double was the better
and safer call. North redoubled anxious to defend if I ran to
hearts or clubs. Fortunately for me, South was determined to show
his second suit and I was left unpunished.
PLAY: From the auction,
I knew declarer would probably need to ruff diamonds in dummy so I
started with three rounds of trumps. The first defensive problem
was for my partner to find a discard
on the third spade. She knew better than to throw away a club so
that left a heart or a diamond. Four small diamonds might seem
unimportant but she remembered the bidding and finally discarded
a low heart. After winning the third trick in his hand, declarer
led his only heart. I realized that playing the ace would
allow declarer to establish the heart suit so I played low. Now
declarer could discard one small diamond on the good club but that
still left him with two diamond losers. But, declarer wasn't
done. He took the losing diamond finesse and won the diamond
return. Next he ran the rest of his trumps and caught my partner
in a diamond-club squeeze. In the four-card ending, partner
couldn't keep the eight of diamonds and four clubs. We gave it a
good try but declarer was the winner.
Note if East discards a diamond declarer will have an easy ten
tricks. The same is
true if I win my ace of hearts. As for the bidding, if South
hadn't bid diamonds I had no safe place to run and would probably end
up -800 or -1100.
