In the second half we maintained our narrow advantage, and picked up a few more with some tight defence. There were a couple of times we had them beaten and I cashed out for one down, but with some thought I could have taken them two off, or at least given declarer a difficult guess. Cashing out in defence was partly me not being totally confident I'd remembered all the cards correctly, but I think also a personality thing. Rather than go for the kill I was happy to bank a small win. Certainly this has been my philosophy with investments, when for example I sold my Dogecoin far too early.
We were about 20 IMPs up going into the last board (though didn't know it of course).
I opened 1♥ and John responded 2♦, which for us is a game-forcing two-over-one bid. My 2NT rebid is a special convention showing a good six card major, which I certainly had. John could have supported with 3♥ (a strong bid since we are game forced), but wanted so show his good Diamonds with 3♦. I could have signed off in 5♦ but thought my support and Hearts were good enough to try 4♦.
We were soon in 6♦, for the second time in the match. The first time it depended on a trump finesse, which worked but when trumps were 4-0 still went down. This time it just depended on the Heart finesse.
South led a Club that North won, and found the best return of a Spade. There's no benefit in taking this finesse so John correctly went up with the Ace, and was able to draw trumps in two rounds (if trumps are 3-1 it gets trickier as you might need an early Heart finesse in case they are 4-0). When declarer led the ♥9 North took the ♥K and cashed a Spade, for two off.
If the Heart finesse works we make 12 tricks, if it fails we make only 10, so in a sense 6♦ is the right contract (no point playing 5♦). Although the other table managed to play 4♥= so we lost 11 IMPs, instead of gaining 10.
That meant we won the match by 34-28 IMPs.
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