This is hand 9 from Friday March 2. As East I picked up:
♠ A K J 9 7 2
♥ 7 4
♦ A 9 5
♣ J 5
North was dealer and bid one heart. I overcalled one spade. South passed and then my partner West bid 2 NT. I alerted and described it as Jacoby 2NT (4 trumps, opening points). North continued with a bid of 3 diamonds. About this time I was slowly catching on that maybe, just maybe, partner's bid wasn't Jacoby, instead it was likely to be 10-12 points, no more than two spades and balanced distribution. But since I had alerted it as J2NT I felt I had to respond as if it was, so I bid 4 spades, which was followed by 3 passes.
South led the club 8, and this was the dummy I was given:
♠ 10 8
♥ A Q 8 2
♦ Q 7 6
♣ A 10 4 3
Given the bidding, I wasn't optimistic about any finesse working as North likely had all/most of the missing high cards, but I played low from dummy as I had the Jack in my hand. North won with the King, and returned a diamond which I let ride around to the Queen, which won. I was wondering why North led a diamond, as a trump lead was the only one that wouldn't give me an extra trick. When I called for the 10 of spades from board, I found out why as North discarded. A 5-0 trump split - my lucky day! I played low, South won the Queen and returned a diamond. I won with the Ace, after North played his 10. I then drew the remaining trumps, and led my last diamond. North had to win with the King, and was again endplayed, forced to lead either a club or heart into dummy's tenaces. I was able to claim the rest. So not only did North get endplayed at trick two, he was endplayed again at trick 10! With the way the cards were, there was no way to avoid it.
Postscript - if South had won the third diamond, a heart or club return would force me to guess which finesse was working, if any. Turns out the heart finesse was working. But 3 NT would have made 4 for a better score...
The full deal is below:
|