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Hi all,

It looks like it has finally happened. After some 20 years of paying rent I have finally transitioned to mortgage status. My. Own. Place. This is the street, very close to everything interesting, silent enough for peace of mind. It’s tiny, but then again, I have little possessions anyway and without room I won’t have the opportunity to hoard a lot of stuff. Neat place → neat frame of mind.

Here’s a nice deal: 

West
North
East
South
 
 
 
1
1
21
32
4
a.p.
 
 
 
  1. Limit+, usually 3-crd support, low ODR
  2. Good raise

This is what Kees had to work with:

North
7
KJ6
AK72
T9763
South
KJ5
AQ9742
863
Q

Of course the North hand isn’t exactly “low ODR” with a stiff , honour cards in trumps and prime outside values. Anticipating some heavy competition I decided to take the low road, I didn’t want to encourage Kees to bid up to the 5-level.

LHO kicks off with the 3 of trumps. The battleship plan of ruffing two in dummy has been torpedoed from the start.

Of course a mundane finesse against the Queen is the straightforward option, you will be able to claim six trumps in hand, the King of , a ruff in dummy and two top .

Kees looked a little bit deeper and found a path that would lead to ten tricks without a hook.

Trump 6 in dummy won the trick and Kees played a towards his Queen, East rising with the Ace. The Queen switch he won in dummy. Next he ruffed three in his hand using both trumps in dummy as entries (trumps splitting 3-1 and splitting 3-4). Leading to this position:

North
7
A72
T
South
KJ5
86

Kees crossed to dummy with a , pitched his remaining on Ten and played a to his Jack, completely unconcerned whether the hook would win or lose. West, stripped from everything but , was placed to surrender the game-going trick to Kees’ King.

South Dealer
– Vul
North
7
KJ6
AK72
T9763
West
AT962
T83
95
K82
East
Q843
5
QJT4
AJ54
South
KJ5
AQ9742
863
Q

Of course the more mundane plan would have worked out as well. Taking home ten was good for a three IMP pickup, our teammates took the sacrifice in 4

My dad took my brother and me to see Star Wars – The Force Awakens (the full Dolby 3D experience) on first Christmas Day as present. How thoughtful and sweet! And what a ride it was, just seeing Ford/Fisher/Hamill again was worth it alone. I think J.J. Abrams did a fantastic job. 

Cheers to the New Year. May it be a memorable & happy one.