Fat Fly

Hi all

I was playing a Piedmont pairs night with Elenalani about a week ago. This deal has been bugging me, like a fat fly on a very hot summer day.

South
KQ
QJ7
Q94
AKT82

West
North
East
South
pass
pass
1
1NT
4
a.p.
 
 

I’m surprised by the jump to game by my LHO, and so is RHO I see from the corner of my eye. I figure there’s a lot of distribution involved, but that’s as far as I can get when assembling information. So I lead a top trump to prevent a complete crossruff. I certainly want to defend as passively as possible, right?

Wrong!

This was the complete deal.

West Dealer
NS Vul
North
2
965
KJ853
9654
West
A974
AT842
72
73
East
JT8653
K3
AT6
QJ
South
KQ
QJ7
Q94
AKT82

Declarer had no problems establishing dummy’s suit to dispose of his . In the end East had only lost one trump and two . I can tell you +420 was a very, very lonely score on the score sheet.

The only effective defence is taking two top and then switch to a . Declarer can still develop the suit, but he lacks important tempo.

West Dealer
NS Vul
North
J853
65
West
974
T8
7
East
JT86
T6
South
K
Q9
T82

East can pitch only one loser on dummy’s winning , I get to ruff with my King and take the setting trick with my pointy Queen.

Could I foresee that West jumped to game on such a flat hand? Or should I just take take a deep breath, congratulate West with his insane bid and take my loss? I don’t know.

1 thought on “Fat Fly”

  1. Hi Jannes,

    I think you should congratulate West with his insane bid, but I also think a top is a better start. It’s only worse than a trump lead if you can’t draw two round of trumps anymore (if you have to) or if you set up a side clubsuit for the declarer. But it’s better if you can give your partner a ruff or if you have to collect or establish your tricks fast.

Comments are closed.