Restrained

Hi all

Here’s a fine hand from Dombo a couple of weeks ago. Hoek opened 1 and I couldn’t be restrained until I had parked myself in a pairs 6NT. West led a small .

North
QJT965
T2
A6
KT8

South
AK
AQ854
KJ93
A6

 
As you can see 6 is laydown, and even 7 has good play (combined chances of ruffing out the Queen or a finesse). But how to scramble together twelve tricks in NT? And the communication to and fro isn’t really a walk in the park as well.

The 8 is covered with the 9 (by Dennis) for my Ace. I unblock my Ace and King and cross to dummy in . On the run of I have to choose wich suit to keep, either or . The latter I decide.

North
T2
6
KT

South
A
KJ9
6

It comes down to the finesse. If that would fail, then I still can hope for the appearance of the Ten of . I would estimate these odds to be around 70%, the opponents have had some difficult discards as well on the run of , and I believe they have all their guards still intact.

My Jack proves to be a trick. I’m home.

But wait, things get better when I cash my King. West gets a little sweaty and throws a . Let’s take a look at East when I put some pressure on him with my Ace of .

North Dealer
NS Vul
North
QJT965
T2
A6
KT8
West
73
KJ73
874
J742
East
842
96
QT52
Q953
South
AK
AQ854
KJ93
A6

I have to admit, I didn’t expect a double squeeze with the as pivot suit to materialize. But it did.

Blind spot

Hi all

This is my second week living in the US. I feel pretty comfortable here already, but I don’t know what has happened to my muse. Here’s me squeezing out an article.

This deal is from a couple of weeks ago where I partnered BoB in Waddinxveen. We were by far (I guess some 25 years) the youngest pair in the 200+ pairs field.

North
73
AJ86542
AKQ3

South
AJ84
AJ83
J7654

We had an unopposed auction:

West
North
East
South
 
 
 
1
pass
1
pass
1
pass
11
pass
22
pass
3
pass
33
pass
4
pass
5
a.p.
 
 
 

1. Fourth suit forcing
2. Showing 4-4-1-4 (or worse)
3. From here on the auction gets foggy

When dummy hit the table I was wondering if we had missed a grand, you just need a friendly and trump split. But at the same time I was happy we avoided 3NT, there are only eight tricks available if the opponents pay a little attention.

On the King of lead I analyzed that I would need to establish the suit to get to eleven tricks. And I saw that I needed as many entries to dummy as possible, so I ruffed the lead with the 3. I ruffed a , crossed in trumps, ruffed another , and crossed again in trumps (noticing the 1-3 trumps split). This is the position right now (East still holding a trump):

North
73
AJ865
A

South
AJ84
AJ8
J

This is where I truly suffered a blind spot. I really thought it was necessary now that the had to split 3-3 so I cashed the Ace. Ruffed. By. East.

I had nowhere to go. Suddenly my beautiful contract crumbled in my fingers with ten tricks maximum.

South Dealer
EW Vul
North
73
AJ86542
AKQ3
West
QT95
KQT6
QT73
8
East
K62
97542
K9
T92
South
AJ84
AJ83
J7654

And the solution is so easy… Instead of trying to cash the Ace of I should have ducked a . East would gain nothing by ruffing in the air. I’m still holding both Major suit Aces, and my Jack is the lifelink to dummy.

I agree you would give up an easy overtrick if had split 3-3, but making your contract here (with an overtrick actually) is so much more important.

Rain

Hi all

I have arrived in the US without troubles. 

Sanne and one of her friends picked me up at San Francisco airport and together they asked me: "Why did you bring rain along?". To me it felt like typical Dutch weather, but rain is a rare thing here outside the rain season. Oh well, right now it’s shiny and a comfortable 21 degrees Celsius.

Sanne took me to Berkeley Bowl Marketplace. I’ve never seen so much fresh fruit and vegetables crammed into one place. I couldn’t stop drooling, too many flavors and impressions. I felt like a kid in a candy store. 

I think I’ll feel at home quite soon.