Trading Options
J 9 6
A 9 6
K 10 7
A K 7 5
Q 7 2
J 8 5
Q J 5 3
10 4 3
A 10 8 5 3
10
8 2
Q J 9 6 2
K 4
K Q 7 4 3 2
A 9 6 4
8
Some pairs managed to bid these hands up to
6 ♥, but the pair I watched
had an auction that got them to
5 ♥.
West led a spade. East played the ace and switched to a diamond.
Declarer won the
♦ A, drew trumps, cashed the
♣ A-K pitching a diamond, and ruffed a club. After
cashing the
♠ K, declarer then ran his remaining
trumps, to this position:
West is squeezed on the last heart.
By playing the
♠ A, East rectified the count for declarer,
as well as ensuring that his partner had the only spade guard.
But if East plays the
♠ 10 on the first trick, declarer
could cash the top clubs, pitching his spade loser, then cash the
trump king, followed by three rounds of diamonds. Whatever West does,
he can't keep declarer from ruffing the fourth diamond in dummy, making 6.
But that is not necessarily the best play - it might be right for
declarer to play two rounds of trumps before conceding the diamond -
in fact, I think that is technically the right play, because it makes
the contract whenever the hearts are split 2-2 or diamonds are split
3-3, but also when the diamonds are 4-2 and the doubleton includes
an honor. This better line fails here, with West winning the third
diamond and continuing a trump. Declarer cannot now ruff the last
diamond in dummy.
So East's blind play of the
♠ A left declarer only one
rather low-probability chance to make the contract, and it worked.
The play of the
♠ 10 on the first trick would give
declarer some options, with only the lower-percentage option working.
Not that I think I would have played the East hand differently - I
don't think I could have found this duck.
Here are the results on this board:
(1-6) 6H N +6 1430 90.00%
(7) 6S-X W -6 1400 76.00%
(8-9) 4H N +7 710 70.00%
(10) 4H N +6 680 64.00%
(11) 3NT S +5 660 60.00%
(12-19) 4H N +5 650 40.00%
(20) 5H N +5 650 40.00%
(21-22) 4H N +4 620 18.00%
(23-26) 6H N -1 -100 6.00%