posted April 2011

$1 Total Points Tournament

Visualise a favourable lie of the cards

Bd: 7 Dlr: South Vul: Both North S 63 H Q74 D AQJ106 C A64 South S KQ94 H AJ93 D K4 C KQ3 West North East South GIB W GIB N GIB E newmoon 1C Pass 1D Pass 2NT Pass 6NT Pass Pass Pass Trick 1: D3 DT D5 D4 Trick 2: S3 S5 SK SA Trick 3: D2 D6 S2 DK

QUIZ: How would you continue?

Solution:

First things first - we count our sure tricks.   Hmmm we have 1 in spades, 1 in hearts, 5 in diamonds and 3 clubs = 10 tricks. 2 Short of our target.

Of course, the K can drop singleton on our left, but this is definitely against all the odds.   Better is to play that the K is on our right.   That makes 11.   Our 12th trick?

Instead of taking a deep finesse with the 9, can we tilt some odds in our favour?   What if East has the K as well as four(+) spades?   Or K as well as the J - 10?   Yes, East can be squeezed then!

We cash the Q, then three round of clubs ending in dummy, and we proceed to run all the diamonds.   Unless we have seen the J and 10, we discard the 9 on the last diamond, then hook the J and pray.

The full hands were:

North S 63 H Q74 D AQJ106 C A64 West East S A7 S J10852 H 105 H K862 D 98732 D 5 C J1052 C 987 South S KQ94 H AJ93 D K4 C KQ3