N
Pard
♠
x
♥
Kx
♦
AJxx
♣
9xx xxx
Lead: ♣A
S
Me
♠
Axx
♥
xxx
♦
KQx xxx x
♣
—
My hand is way too strong offensively for a preempt. So, I decided to open it 1D. The bidding now went:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
Me
—
Pass
Pass
1♦
Dbl
2♦
4♠
5♦
Pass
Pass
Dbl
All Pass
Unfavorable, it is a dangerous sacrifice, but I pushed on to 5D regardless and got doubled.
Dummy comes down on the Ace of clubs. What's your line?
I decided that going down 1 doubled was probably going to be okay, since 4S is cold.
But I had set my sights too low -- I should be able to make this thing. All I need to do is to ruff two spades and one heart in dummy. Then, I lose only two hearts. Unthinkingly, though I pulled two rounds of trumps, and when the Ace of hearts was with East, I went down one. Still a good board, but I needed to play to make.
I wonder if this is one of those weird hands where declarer is more likely to make the contract if dummy holds xx in hearts instead of Kx?
ReplyDeleteYou might still have your sights set too low. If clubs split 4-3, it looks like a dummy reversal would produce 12 tricks. Play the first few tricks as a crossruff. Ruff the club lead; ace and a spade; club ruff; spade ruff and a third club ruff. If clubs split 4-3, diamond to jack, ruff another club, and diamond to ace. You now have two good clubs on which to pitch two losing hearts. You get 4 trumps (dummy), 4 club ruffs; 2 clubs, the spade ace, and a delayed heart ruff.
ReplyDeleteBTW, that looks like a perfectly normal 3D preempt at unfavorable vulnerability opposite a passed partner to me. (Maybe I'm in the Henry Bethe school of bidding.) On this hand, partner should put you in the same 5 diamond contract in any case.