Fall North American Bridge Championships in San Francisco
Sunday, November 25, 1990
Swiss Teams with Kathy, Bill & Debbie (we wound up 4-4 for the day)
Round 6, Last Board, right after I balanced after P P(me) 1H P
1S P 2S P
P ?
with 3 diamonds holding K 8 A A I got doubled by RHO and went
10 7 10 J down 500. Diamonds and hearts
x x 7 were 5-0. That lost 12 IMPS.
6 Hell, I might have opened the
x bidding.
Anyway, I hold K J A A and I open 1 diamond. The opponents pass
8 Q Q throughout. Kathy responds 1 heart.
4 J 9 I downgrade my hand and bid only 2 clubs.
3 2 Kathy bids 3 clubs. I then bid 3 no trump.
2
Lead:
Q of Spades
A K 9 J
2 10 5 8
8 5
6 4
3
Q A K - 9 Q 10 K
J 7 8 7 9 10
10 4 7 6 5 7
3 6 5 6
2 4 3
K J A A
8 Q Q
4 J 9
3 2
2
Kathy briefly thought my 2 clubs bid was forcing. "New suit forcing",
she said. I told her that was only for responder. "Oh." Anyway, it's
not such a bad contract. I was underbidding, so it made up for her
overbid. I've been in a lot worse contracts.
I needed to start clubs from dummy, so I won the Ace of spades and led
a low club to my queen, holding (good), but outshow on my left (bad).
Now what? I don't quite have the club spots to lose only 1 club trick
and I don't have dummy entries to finesse too many times. Boy, I
desperately need tricks. I could get 2 spades, 2 diamonds, and 3 clubs,
but meanwhile I lose a diamond and a club, which gives them time to
knock out my other spade stopper and run more spades. I'm in sad shape
here. I don't even have dummy entries to finesse diamonds. In desperate
times, desperate measures are called for, so let's try to get to dummy
to take that diamond finesse. I led my stiff Jack of hearts toward
dummy, LHO ducking, me winning with dummy's King (guessed that right).
Well, since I'm in dummy again, things are looking up. I can finesse
RHO out of one of her honors, so I led another club, RHO putting in the
ten, me winning the Ace. After 4 tricks, we are down to
2 10 9 J
8 5 8
6 5
J A K - 9 Q 10 K
10 7 8 7 9 7
4 7 6
6 5
K - A 9
8 Q 2
J
3
2
"Hey," I realize, "I've got another entry to dummy. Watch." I lead
the 9 of clubs and overtake with dummy's Jack. RHO has to duck, else
I'll have yet another entry to dummy with my 2 of clubs to dummy's 8 and
enjoy the fifth club to boot. So she ducks. Boy, if I had realized I
would be in dummy this many times, I wouldn't have been so pessimistic.
Now I figure, this is bound to be my last time in dummy. It's time to
start the diamonds. I led a low diamond from dummy, the 10 appearing on
my right, to my Queen and LHO's King. Hey, wow!! I've got yet another
entry to dummy!! That lowly 9 of diamonds. This is great!
LHO trys cashing the Ace of hearts, the 9 appearing on my right
(dummy's 10-8 is looking better), and leads another heart, RHO winning
with her queen, setting up the 10 in dummy. We now have
2 10 9 8
5
J - 8 - 9 - - K
10 7 7
6 6
5
K - A 2
8 J
3
RHO doesn't realize that dummy's 9 of diamonds is an entry, so she
figures it's safe to cash her king of clubs. From her viewpoint, this
is the last time she's going to be in. She does, then leads a spade to
my King. I now lead my 3 of diamonds to dummy, which was good. Making
3 for +400. At the other table, they went down 2 for -100, which was
good for 11 IMPS and the round. We won by 12 IMPS.
Let's see. How many tricks did I win in dummy? The spade ace, the
heart King and ten, the diamond 9, and the club jack and 5. Six tricks.
I only won three tricks in my hand. The spade king and the club ace and
queen. How funny. I have 17 HCP in my hand which wins 3 tricks. Dummy
has 8 HCP and wins 6 tricks.