| A Comical Auction followed by Excellent Declarer Play |
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This week's hand comes from a green point teams event played in Wales over the weekend.Two good pairs were at the table, although when a comical auction unfolded you would not have believed it.
After South opened the bidding out of turn with 1♠ and this was not accepted by West, the opening bid reverted back to East, who then opened 1♣ . South overcalled 1♠ and North was now silenced for one round of bidding. The auction developed as shown above. East now thought about what to bid with his strong hand, and came up with 2♥! This was inadvertently accepted by South when he passed and 2♥ by East became the final contract.
Whereas the bidding had been shambolic, the declarer play was completely the opposite. After South had led the 6♦ East reasoned along the following lines.It appears that South has at least 6 spades for his bidding, and it looks as though the 6♦ was probably from two or three small diamonds. So placing 9 cards in the spade and diamond suits, South reckoned there was a strong chance the trump suit was breaking at least 4/1, so he decided to play North for a holding of ♥KQxx. If this was so he now needed to get to dummy two times to twice lead up to the J♥. How could he get to dummy twice when he cannot use the A♥ as an entry? Well if East was right about the heart holding in North's hand, South must have the K♣ on the bidding, so it might be possible to con him. After winning the first trick with the A♦, he led the 10♣! Now put yourself in South's shoes. He thought that East could easily have a five card club suit on the bidding, and if he goes up with the K♣, he could crash a singleton Q♣ in partner's hand Surely declarer with his innocent face had not led away from AQJ10♣! After a bit of thought, he eventually ducked. An excellent start for East who now played on South's nerves by playing a small spade. South eventually played the 10♠ and the Q♠ won in dummy. Now a low heart was led towards declarer's J♥, and North went in with the Q♥. When South showed out a big smile developed on East's face!
North exited with his remaining spade and after winning with the A♠, South led another diamond won by East's K♦. All that was now needed was for the A♣ to stand up and it did. The Q♣ was now led and South decided not to cover ( it doesn't matter) and the remaining diamond in dummy was discarded. After winning with a trump, North can only really lead a diamond for the cheap ruff on table. A spade lead from dummy now ensured a trump would be won in declarer's hand and the contract was made with 2 club tricks, two diamond tricks a spade trick and three trump tricks.
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