Saturday, January 11, 2014

It's not a sacrifice if you play to make

After two passes, I am South with 9 points and 7 diamonds, unfavorable vulnerability.  What is your  bid?
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.

2 comments:

  1. 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?

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  2. You 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.

    BTW, 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.

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