Friday 20 November 2009

WHO AM I TO COMMENT..............................( Article by Howard Bigot-Johnson ) Both vulnerable and my partner ( East ) ended up in 6NT. This was good because my partner claims to be "one of the best players in the club who never puts a foot wrong". Don't for pity's sake ask me why we are not in 6 hearts because that's another story. Mr. Perfect has already binned a vulnerable game, and passed a forcing bid to bin a non-vulnerable game.....and this at aggregate scoring !! How I held my temper in check I do not know, but who am I to comment having been recently relieved of my captaincy, after going 11 off in a small spade slam ( see Nov 16th post) on the very last board of an intercity league match. Partner's hand was : 109...65...AQx....AKQJ10x..opposite my: Axx....AKJ9xx....Jxx...4. The only opposition bidding was a weak jump overcall of 2 spades by North. At trick one South led the queen of spades, which partner took in dummy with the Ace. He then played the Ace of hearts, followed by 3 rounds of clubs discarding 2 spades and a heart from dummy. Then came a second heart to the jack, which North won with the queen. Minus a bundle. How bloody clueless can one be? So I gave the hand to someone who really can play the cards....and it took him 3 seconds to get it right. His analysis agreed with mine: North must have some other values for his weak jump overcall outside his KJ of spades to six. The only points left in the pack were queen of hearts and the king of diamonds.....and he most likely had both. The odds of South holding the J of spades were slim. North was ripe for a squeeze. After runnning off six top clubs and two top hearts, North has either dropped the queen of hearts, or is still clinging onto it for dear life, along side his boss spade and two diamonds to the king. At trick ten, dummy's left with Jxx of diamonds plus the heart jack, while declarer has three diamonds to the AQ and the all important 9 of spades. A finesse of the diamond to the queen, followed by the Ace of diamonds ( King falls )then sets up dummy's jack for the 12th trick.

No comments: