| ♠Q95 ♥Q4 ♦AT964 ♣T87 | ||
| ♠72 ♥AT9862 ♦K52 ♣92 | ♠KJ3 ♥J7 ♦J87 ♣KQJ43 | |
| ♠AT864 ♥K53 ♦Q3 ♣A65 |
North deals and passes. Partner opens 1C and South overcalls 1S. What's my call sitting West?
I'm not strong enough to bid 2H over the 1S overcall, but I have hearts, so I double (this is negative). North bids 2S. Two passes and it's back to me.
Well, I do have six hearts, so I venture a 3H bid confident that my failure to bid 2H will keep us from going overboard. South, after a lot of thought, decides to compete to 3S. This, then, is the bidding:
P - 1C - 1S - X
2S - P - P - 3H
P - P - 3S - allpass
Had this happened at the table, what would you think of the situation? I didn't think 3H was making and it looked as if they were one too high. Would I finally get a good board against this pair?
I led the 9 of clubs and declarer won and led back a club. Partner cashed two clubs and led the Jack of hearts. Declarer ducked. What's my play?
Partner's plays have given me the count of his hand. He has 3 spades (from the bidding), 2 hearts (from the switch) and 5 clubs (from his cash-out). So, declarer is 5-3-2-3.
I can duck the heart after which declarer has to lose a heart, a spade, two clubs and a diamond for a one-trick set. Unfortunately, I failed to count out his hand. I went up with the Ace of hearts and compounded the mistake by leading a small diamond. Declarer guessed right, ducking to his hand. Letting 3S make was a bottom of course.
Going up with the Ace of hearts was not a critical mistake -- we could have still survived had I simply returned a heart, and the heart return is obvious if I had counted out declarer's hand.
When you've got them on the bidding, play tight on the defense.
