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Easy Squeezy
Round Six -
Open Series
Most players will tell you
that they prefer a nice simple board at the start of a match, one that
offers a chance to settle down. Of course life is not always so straightforward.
This was the opening deal of the sixth
round of the Open series:
Board 1
None Vul
Dealer North
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K J 8 5 |
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K |
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A Q J
8 5 |
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K 6 3 |
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9 |
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Q 10 |
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Q J 10 9 8 6 5 |
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A 7 3 |
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7 6 2 |
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K 10 9 5 3 |
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9 4 |
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Q J 8 |
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A 7 6 4
3 2 |
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4 2 |
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- |
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A 10 7 5 2 |
| West |
North |
East |
South |
| .. |
Kordy |
.. |
Salib |
| .. |
1
|
Pass |
1 |
3 |
4 |
Pass |
5 |
| Pass |
6 |
All Pass |
.. |
West led the queen of hearts and East won
and returned a heart, ruffed in dummy. With East turning up with the ace
of hearts, declarer was inclined to place the king of diamonds with West.
If it was not guarded more than twice declarer could establish three diamond
tricks to get rid of three clubs from his hand.
Declarer played a spade to his ace, a spade to the king and a low diamond
from dummy. That caught East off guard and the momentary hesitation was
enough to tell declarer that the king of diamonds was on his right.
He ruffed the diamond and went back to dummy via a trump to the jack.
He cashed the ace of diamonds and advanced the queen. East covered, so
declarer ruffed and played his remaining trump discarding a club
from dummy.
This was the position when the last trump was played:
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- |
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- |
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J 8 |
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K 6 |
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- |
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- |
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J 10 9 |
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- |
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- |
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10 9 |
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9 4 |
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Q J 8 |
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7 |
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- |
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- |
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A 10 2 |
East was caught in a simple squeeze. Discarding
a club meant that South could take the last trick with the two of clubs
- okay we admit it was probably a slightly bigger club but we like
to give marks for style!
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