Can you always believe your opponents? Well, the answer to that
is easy but sometimes you do need to believe their bidding. Here
is a hand that makes that point.
Scoring: Swiss Teams (IMPs)
Hand #34
Dlr
W
Vul
Both
642
AK83
A875
J7
109642
K103
Q10543
AJ53
QJ75
J4
A92
KQ10987
Q962
K86
West
North
East
South
Pass
1
DBL
1
Pass
1NT
Pass
4
All Pass
BIDDING: North opened his
minimum hand, East made a takeout double, and South showed his good
spade suit. After North rebid 1NT, South bid the spade
game. This was a team event and he did not want to miss a
vulnerable game.
PLAY: West led a club to
his partner's ace and South won the club continuation with his
king. Declarer saw he could ruff his last club and discard two
diamonds on the heart suit, but that still left him with a diamond and
a spade to lose. Clearly this meant he could not afford to lose a
second spade trick. East's takeout double strongly suggested
three and very likely four spades so declarer decided to play him for
the jack. At trick three declarer ruffed his last club in dummy
followed by a low spade. Declarer's ten won the trick as West
showed out. It was now easy to go to dummy with a diamond,
discard two diamonds on dummy's top hearts, and lead another
spade. It didn't matter if East ducked or won the ace, declarer
had held his losers to one spade, one diamond, and one club.
It's true declarer might have lost a spade to a singleton jack in the
West hand but he went with the odds. The auction said that East
held three or four of the outstanding spade cards and those are pretty
good odds. When in doubt, trust your math.
