Interesting Hands with commentaries by John Hunt

 

February’s Interesting Hand

Playing in a teams affair at Christmas time, I was declarer on one hand in 3NT which             

I mangled so badly that I went two off for -200.     It turned out that this effort was             

not the complete catastrophe that I had envisaged since the opponent sitting in my             

chair at the other table also played in 3NT and failed (although only by one.)             

             

I was just thinking about giving up bridge and, instead, playing snap against members             

of the Battle Stammerers' Society (for money), when I found myself, two hands later,             

playing 4S with these cards:             

             

                                        Dummy                        ª K632         

                                                                                               © 9843         

                                                                                               ¨ K4         

                                                                                               § K104         

             

                                        Me                                  ª AQ874         

                                                                                               © A105         

                                                                                               ¨ 85         

                                                          § AJ9         

              

West, a wily devil, led a diamond and, without much hope, I tried the king from dummy.  The          

trick was won, of course, by East (an equally crafty character!), with the ace.  He cashed a second      

diamond and switched to the king of hearts.   I won this with the ace and then paused to reflect.             

The contract looked to be impossible - I have lost two tricks in diamonds and looked like losing         

another two in hearts and I still had a guess to make in clubs.   I decided after a while, that I           

might as well settle for one off and I could do that by playing hearts myself, allowing the             

defence to take their two tricks in that suit and they would then have to open up the clubs or             

give me a ruff and discard.     So, I drew trumps in three rounds and then led the ten of             

hearts.   

Somewhat to my surprise, West played the jack and won the trick.   It was his turn to ponder.  Eventually, unwilling to lead a club from his queen, he played the queen of diamonds.          

What luck!   I was able to ruff in dummy and discard my losing heart.   The last five cards were:          

                                                                                                ª --         

                                                           © 98         

                                                           ¨ --         

                                                                                                § K104         

             

                                                                                               ª 87         

                                                          © --         

                                                          ¨ --         

                                                          § AJ9         

             

You can see that dummy's hearts provide a ruffing finesse against East's presumed queen       

(he had led the king remember).   The ace, king, jack and ten have all been played so dummy's         

9 and 8 are equals and, apart from the queen, are masters.   I played a heart from dummy and         

East played low with a nonchalant air.    I threw a small club and the last four tricks were             

mine with the last two trumps and the ace and king of clubs.   4S made.   

Note that, if East had covered the heart from dummy, I would have ruffed, re-entered the dummy with the king of clubs and then cashed the (by now) master eight of hearts.   Note also that West made a small error (although understandable), by playing the queen of diamonds when he did.   If he had played a club after all, he would have solved that suit for me but I would still have had a losing heart.

         

I thought the hand was truly magical.    I subsequently decided not to give up bridge after all - snap          

can wait!