Some declarers will resort to all sorts of ruses, in desperate attempts to bring home seemingly impossible contracts. Nevertheless, trying one out against the great Johnny Supremo really took the biscuit. He was sitting West defending South's 3NT.
His hand was KQJ107.....J9...73.....QJ84, and so it was no surprise to see the King of spades lead hitting the table at trick one. Declarer ducked, and so the queen of spades quickly followed ( partner showing two ). Declarer took this..... clumsily fumbled through his cards.....and then to his apparant shock and dismay accidentally plonked his last spade onto the table !
Johnny eagerly took this, but then stopped for a second. Had South played this card in error or what ? Something did seem right here. So resisting temptation to even cash his 4th spade he calmly exited with a diamond. Declarer was doomed. With partner holding 95.....Q1072.....J1095.....1073, the defence was certain to pick up a trick in each of the other suits, with declarer being restricted to 8 tricks ( 1S, 2H, 3D,2C).
If Johnny had cashed even one more spade, East would have been obliged to discard a second club. A switch now would result in declarer cashing the A/K of clubs, forcing East no doubt part with a heart. This would allow declarer to concede a heart to set up a 4th one in hand to make the contract. Similarly, if East jettisoned a diamond, declarer would then makes his contract by gleefully harvesting 4 diamond winners.
Even if Johnny cashed out all his spades, the squeeze on East was still in place, enabling declarer to see the contract home.
........
For the record, North's hand was : 632....8532....AQ6...K62, while South held A84...AK6...K842...A95
No comments:
Post a Comment