Wednesday 9 October 2013

Double Fit - Deal of the Week #7

Here's a good hand from this lunch time. Even during the auction, we decided this was Deal of The Week. It's also the first one I've featured with TB as declarer.

♠ A T x x
♥ x x
♦ K x x x
♣ J T x
♠ x
♥ K J x x x
♦ J
♣ A K Q x x x
8
148
10
♠ Q x x
♥ A x x x x
♦ Q x
♣ x x x
♠ K J x x x
♥ Q
♦ A x x x x x
♣ x
JWAPNCTB
WNES
1♦
2♣2♦2♥2♠
3♥3♠4♥4♠
5♥--5♠
---

TB has the very distributional South hand and chose to open 1♦. This modest contract was enough to give North-South the rubber, but it wasn't likely to end there. JW was certain 1♦ wasn't going to end the auction, and came in straight away with 2♣. North supported with 2♦, and East introduced his Heart suit. South only has ten points, but it's a very powerful hand, and on the second round he introduced his Spade suit with 2♠. This is perfectly safe as he will be happy to play 3♦ if there's no Spade fit. But, actually, his bid has uncovered a huge double fit. North-South have Spades and Diamonds, East-West have Hearts and Clubs. That means everyone can make a lot of tricks, and you gotta bid 'em up.

Over 2♠ West supported partner with 3♥, and now the double fit is well known, and the auction took off. North bid 3♠, East came in with 4♥, then South went with 4♠. I thought this would end the auction, but JW backed in again with 5♥. This was excellent judgement, as North-South would have made 4♠. I thought maybe AP should have doubled 5♥, but he wisely resisted, as actually 5♥ might well have made. TB then showed good judgement of his own, and bid 5♠, which ended the auction.

To make 5♠ declarer needs to get Spades right. He played for the 2-2 split and played the Ace-King, which unfortunately meant he had to lose a trump trick to West. The defence then took their other two tricks, so the result was 5♠-1.

In a Heart contract with East as declarer it would have been easy for the defence to take their Aces, in Spades and Diamonds, as they would have seen the two singletons in dummy. If West is declarer there's a chance 6♥ might make, as the defence might try and take two tricks in Spades, then declarer can get in and discard his Diamond loser on the long Clubs.

Double fit.

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