The Decider
Saturday 24th April the Counties Intermediate Swiss pair was held - as we only had 6 tables it was converted to a Howell. When it was all over, 1.4 match points separated 1st and 4th place! The last hand of the tournament was a decider.
Board: 22
Dealer: East
Vul: E/W
Pairs
North
♠ K102
♥ J106
♦ Q108
♣ KQ82
West East
♠ J5 ♠ 876
♥ KQ854 ♥ 93
♦ 73 ♦ 964
♣ J974 ♣ A10653
South
♠ AQ943
♥ A72
♦ AKJ52
♣ -
South West North East
pass
1♦ 1♥ 2 NT pass
4 ♣ pass 4 ♦ pass
4 ♥ pass 4NT pass
6 NT
This is how Carole Roberts and Peter Middlehurst bid their way to 6NT.
None of the bids are alerted so I’ll have to guess what they meant! 4♣ , based on the 4♦ bid by North is Gerber. 4 ♦ shows 0 or 4 Aces. 4♥ is a cue bid and South raised 4NT to 6.
Now it all depends on the lead. I always try to tell people to play partners suit. There are 3 reasons for this. Firstly, it is often right. Secondly, it makes partner happy and thirdly, when it is wrong, you are on the right side of a bad argument.
Here a ♥ lead kills the contract as North has to go via the ♣ Ace to get close to 12 tricks. East had not heard my advice, so the serve was the ♣ Ace . After the Ace, another club was played, won in North with the Queen. There are now 13 tricks between the two hands, and Peter cashed 5 spade tricks and two diamond tricks before he claimed. The endeavour gave them a full pot of match points.
In second place Andrew O’Brien & Brian Irlam also got 10 Match Points by defending 4♠ and holding it to 11 tricks.
Kevin Wood and Phil Withers came third as they “only” got 7 Match Points for being in the top contract of 6 spades.
Congratulations to all.
This is the last Deal Of The Week. We will now change to Deal Of The Month, and publish it in the beginning og the month, starting in June. If you have a good hand, send me a line on Espen
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