Bidding
On the night no one else found a slam. Two pairs played in Clubs, three played in 3NT and one enterprising soul played in a Heart part-score by E/W!
Do you and your regular partner have a method of dealing with strong minor suit hands after partner has opened 1NT?
Contract 6NT by South - 7 of Spades led
(to see all the hands, click the 'Show All Hands' box under the bidding box.)
I started with 7 rounds of Clubs and watched the discards. West calmly parted with 3 diamonds for his first three, then a couple of Hearts. East parted with 4 Hearts before starting to squirm, eventually throwing a 5th Heart and then the 7 of Diamonds. West showed out on the Ace of Diamonds and I picked up the Queen to make 4 tricks in the suit.
Result 6NT plus 1.
DEFENCE
West was being greedy, trying to hold on to all his spades in the forlorn hope of making them all. If declarer doesn’t claim straight away West should reason that the defence have a potential Diamond winner, so his job is to conceal the Diamond position.
Look what happens if he simply throws 5 Spades away, keeping the Ace. East must play as she did, keeping ♠ 6 ♥ KQ ♦ Q9 but now declarer thinks, “West is hanging on to his Diamonds, I will finesse through him”. Result 6NT one off!
When you have to discard on a long suit, count how many cards you are going to have to part with and decide what you really need to keep, not what you would like to keep.
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