A textbook hand

[Andy]  Here's a cute hand with a nice result from the second day.

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

West	North	East	South
			Pass
Pass	2♠	Pass	Pass
Dbl	Pass	3♥	All Pass

I could have bid 2NT as a scramble instead of 3♥ but it didn't seem right at matchpoints.  I won the spade lead and played heart to the J and A.  (There is an argument I might have played to the 9, but I didn't find that.)  North played back another spade.  I won and ruffed a spade as South shed a diamond.  I then played ♥K, heart, putting South on lead.

South was endplayed.  He tried a low diamond, which I floated around to my queen. I played a diamond back and South flew A and exited a diamond.  I came off dummy with a low club in a textbook position -- as long as North had no more than one of the ♣10 or ♣J, I could cover his card to endplay South again.  Making 3.

Did you see those club spots?  At the point South won the heart, there was no way to avoid the double endplay.  South needed to make the unintuitive play of pitching a club on the spade ruff, preserving the long diamond as an exit card.  Or of course, North could have pushed a club through upon winning the ♥A.

[Update]  As Richard alertly pointed out in his comment, the analysis above is noticeably incomplete.  South does need to hang onto the 4th diamond, and can certainly use it as an exit card if declarer immediately puts him back in in clubs.  But declarer can play the last trump, which puts the exit card under pressure again.  For example, if upon winning the ♥Q South plays ♦A and another diamond, then declarer wins and plays the last trump, squeezing South back out of the long diamond.  In fact, the only winning defense is what Richard suggested:  South must exit with the low diamond as he did at the table, and then pitch the ♦A on the long trump, creating an entry to partner's hand with the ♦J.
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Emotional highs and lows of a hand

[Andy]  This one is just an amusing story, from the second day of the Platinums.  You pick up:

♠ 10 8 7 6 5
♥ -
♦ Q J 10 7 5 3
♣ 10 8

The auction starts a strong 2♣ on your left, 2NT by partner showing 2 nontouching suits, double on your right.  Gee, I wonder what suits partner has.

I concluded that it must be right to play in diamonds rather than clubs -- I should be able to take some tricks in that suit, and maybe partner will supply a few tricks in high cards.  So I redoubled, which in our agreement says that I have my own suit that I want to play in.

When LHO inquired, partner incorrectly explained the redouble as preferring his higher suit (an agreement we play in certain other situations).  Uh-oh.

Partner might have remembered in time, but LHO came to the rescue, bidding 3♥!  Whew!  Then, to my surprise, the auction proceeded 3♠ - 4♠ - 5♥.  They just bid to the five level in the suit partner has!

Partner leads the CA as dummy tables ♠ A J 9 ♥ 9 7 2 ♦ 8 4 2 ♣ Q J 6 3.  Partner cashes the K of clubs.  RHO half-jokingly says "I hope he doesn't have clubs and hearts!"  I just stare at him.

Two seconds later, declarer claims for what turns out to essentially be a flat board.  Partner held: ♠ 2 ♥ 8 6 5 4 3 ♦ 9 6 ♣ A K 9 7 5

Note the importance of having some agreement to get out in a separate suit after a two suited bid -- 3♦ easily goes for less than their game, while anything else is a disaster.


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