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This hand came from the second round of the county league.
After North opened a slightly light third hand 1H, the 2H bid from East was Michaels showing at least 5/5 in spades and a minor.The free 3spade bid by West led on to the easy spade game bid from East.
This is a very tough hand to play and one I think all of us would be extremely proud of if we got it right. But following on from the theme of the hand from our own club teams on 27 October 2011, after the opening lead of a heart and a discard of a diamond from dummy, what could go wrong here? If the spades break 4/1 you will probably need clubs to be 2/2. If the spades are 3/2 then the only problem would be if the clubs were 4/0, and then the entry problems to dummy could be very difficult if, as expected, dummy is forced to ruff hearts. You can afford to lose a club and two spades. So what is there to lose by testing the clubs immediately for the 4/0 break by leading a low club towards dummy? Blimey! There is no point in North ruffing so win the Ace of clubs. Back to the Ace of diamonds and lead another club.North is still stuck and does best by not ruffing again. So win in dummy. Low club from dummy to South. Probably best is a heart from South ruffed in dummy.Another club and ruffed with queen of spades which happens to hold, and now Ace of spades and small spade.You are at last in control and after the expected heart you ruff and just play on the winning clubs.
If anyone knows of anyone making this contract against a forcing defence using this line let the county selectors know.
Michael Whittaker
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