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.
We had an unopposed auction:
12…31. 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):
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.
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.