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This hand was played during the final round of the green pointed swiss teams event in Bath last weekend. We had a small lead going into the final round. Our opponents were a very good team from Bristol.
There is not a lot to the bidding although the raise to 6NT after the quantative raise to 4NT may not be to everyone's liking. Certainly the quality within 3 suits with vastly under-rated intermediate cards is a plus point, but the adrenalin was flowing! When dummy went down, declarer must have at first been regretting the aggressive raise. Although declarer would have known the importance of the hand, it was actually to decide whether we finished first or third. No pressure then!
After the opening lead of the 7♠, declarer played J♥ and when it was not covered decided not to finesse. After A♥, another heart from the table and the Q♥ appeared. First hurdle out of the way. After cashing the two heart winners, discarding a small club from dummy, declarer crossed to dummy's K♦ and took the diamond finesse, noting the discard from West. .Another hurdle overcome. All of the winners were now played off, ending in declarer's hand at the end of trick 10. By now declarer knew East was down to a single winning diamond and two clubs, as East had shown out on the third spade and discarded a diamond. The contract was now cold, when East was thrown in with the final diamond, to lead into the AQ♣ tenace. A lovely strip squeeze before executing the throw in.
At the other table our opponents passed the 4NT quantative bid and made 11 tricks for a valuable swing of 11IMPS to clinch victory.
Michael Whittaker
14 March 2012
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