Friday, September 15, 2006
Layer upon layer
You are playing your local club's mixed pair championship and get the following hand:
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
You open 1♦, partner respondes 1♥ and since it is always good when you are declarer you rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. The lead is the 5 of Clubs and dummy tables:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
You play small from dummy and the lady on your right takes the Ace since she always does. When North shows up with ♥Kxx you can quickly claim 12 tricks for a 50% score. You don't think much about it and go on to the next hand.
A few weeks later you visit the national mixed championship. You pick up:
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
so you open a Diamond, partner bids 1 Heart. You rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. On the lead of ♣5 dummy shows up with:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
You play small and the lady on your right who has some experience thinks about it for a while and ducks. I hate it when they do that - I will not get two ♣ now. I must play on ♥ since ♠ are too dangerous. ♥10 holds the trick. I decide to go all in since it's MP and I am a ♣ trick behind the field. 5 rounds of ♦ follow and another ♥ finesse. Wow, they are 3 - 3! That's my chance. 12 tricks are sure and on the last ♥ I have this ending:
♠J
♥2
♣Q
♠AQ
♥-
♣6
When I play the ♥ South who still has the ♣A must discard a ♠, so she has at most one of those left. If I play the ♠ next if she has the ♠K it will show up: A showup squeeze! As this works I have 13 tricks so taking the risk of the ducked ♥ paid off. This turned out to be worth 80% of the MP.
Finally, the stage switches to the World Championships in Verona - the mixed pairs. Against a lady you don't know you pick up:
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
You open 1♦ and partner responds 1♥. You rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. LHO on the other side of the screen leads the ♣5 and the hand has something familiar about it. Partner has:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
and the lady thinks about it for a while and... takes the Ace?! Well, that's 2 Club tricks for the good guys. After making all the tricks when LHO shows up with Kxx of ♥ you end up with 12 tricks for a 25% score. Funny, you'd think at this level they would know about ducking a trick like this. Then she says: "I had to take the Ace otherwise I would've been squeezed..." Okay, she knew!
Welcome to the World Championship :)
(Note: the Verona bulletin had this hand but against me it happened as I described it - against someone else)
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
You open 1♦, partner respondes 1♥ and since it is always good when you are declarer you rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. The lead is the 5 of Clubs and dummy tables:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
You play small from dummy and the lady on your right takes the Ace since she always does. When North shows up with ♥Kxx you can quickly claim 12 tricks for a 50% score. You don't think much about it and go on to the next hand.
A few weeks later you visit the national mixed championship. You pick up:
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
so you open a Diamond, partner bids 1 Heart. You rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. On the lead of ♣5 dummy shows up with:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
You play small and the lady on your right who has some experience thinks about it for a while and ducks. I hate it when they do that - I will not get two ♣ now. I must play on ♥ since ♠ are too dangerous. ♥10 holds the trick. I decide to go all in since it's MP and I am a ♣ trick behind the field. 5 rounds of ♦ follow and another ♥ finesse. Wow, they are 3 - 3! That's my chance. 12 tricks are sure and on the last ♥ I have this ending:
♠J
♥2
♣Q
♠AQ
♥-
♣6
When I play the ♥ South who still has the ♣A must discard a ♠, so she has at most one of those left. If I play the ♠ next if she has the ♠K it will show up: A showup squeeze! As this works I have 13 tricks so taking the risk of the ducked ♥ paid off. This turned out to be worth 80% of the MP.
Finally, the stage switches to the World Championships in Verona - the mixed pairs. Against a lady you don't know you pick up:
♠ AQ98
♥ T6
♦ AKQT6
♣ K6
You open 1♦ and partner responds 1♥. You rebid 2NT which is raised to 3. LHO on the other side of the screen leads the ♣5 and the hand has something familiar about it. Partner has:
♠ J76
♥ AQJ32
♦ J7
♣ Q83
and the lady thinks about it for a while and... takes the Ace?! Well, that's 2 Club tricks for the good guys. After making all the tricks when LHO shows up with Kxx of ♥ you end up with 12 tricks for a 25% score. Funny, you'd think at this level they would know about ducking a trick like this. Then she says: "I had to take the Ace otherwise I would've been squeezed..." Okay, she knew!
Welcome to the World Championship :)
(Note: the Verona bulletin had this hand but against me it happened as I described it - against someone else)
# posted by Gerben Dirksen @ 21:37 
