Xmas Party

After 2 and a half years I am going to try to return to sharing some of my occasional brilliances and frequent disasters at the bridge table.


We all had a great night at our Xmas party on Thursday and I had one top score to show off, though as usual it came about by accident:


Dealer East, both Non-vul



South: .............AT7x

....................AQxx

....................xxx

....................Ax

East .....QJ5 .................xx

..........Kxxx ................Jxx

..........KJxx ................Qxx

..........Kx ..................JTxx

.....................K9xx

.....................xx

.....................Ax

.....................Q9xxx


Dave France, obviously not playing weak NT, opens 1H, Adrianne has an awkward choice between a 1NT overbid or a double. Personally I would gone for 1NT (which would have got us to 4S via Stayman), but double it was. Bob Brown stirs it up by bidding 2H. I bid 2S which goes round to Adrianne who, presumably after thinking about bidding 1NT, has it in her head she has 16 points, so bids 3S and I bid 4S.


Dave leads a small heart and dummy goes down. Well how do you get 10 tricks out of this lot while only losing 3? Trumps have to be 3-2, I need the heart finesse and then bring clubs home so they have to be 3-3 with K onside. However what are the opponents hands? Hearts are 4-3 so Dave has at least 12 points for his opening, Bob is under valued. Dave can't have KQJ of diamonds or would have led them, I need him to have KH, really he is well odds on to have KC. A fall back will be to get as many ruffs as possible. So I'll try to bring clubs home while ruffing what I can.


Trick 1 finesse QH

trick 2 cash AH

trick 3 ruff a heart

trick 4 Ace of clubs

trick 5 small club, West doesn't go up with K so I duck and Dave wins King

trick 6, what does Dave play?

A trump loses his trump trick, doesn't like diamond from KJ, so tries 4th (winning) heart. Bob can't see any gain by ruffing small so discards a diamond and I ruff.

We now have :

South: .............AT7x
.................... -
....................xxx
.................... -
East .....QJ5 .................xx
.......... - ................. -
..........KJxx ................Qxx
.......... - ..................JT
.....................K9
..................... -
.....................Ax
.....................Q9x

I'm in hand, I have 5 tricks for the loss of 1 and really must make 10 from 3 more spades, a diamond and a club by playing K, A and another spade now, however what if Dave started 4-4 in the majors?

So I played a small club. If Dave had 4 spades, a small ruff is no good as I over-ruff and play 3 spades making 10. A ruff with the Jack means I over-ruff, diamond to the A and now QC, if Dave takes QS I only have a diamond to lose, if he discards, my Queen wins and again I'll have 10 tricks.

As the cards lay it didn't matter, Dave actually discarded, I returned to AD and led QC and made 10 that way.

A complete top as nobody else bids 4S, excellent 3S bid partner!