Christmas Bridge

This Christmas one evening after an extensive cheese-board we had the pleasure of playing some informal bridge. Anna and I got dealt all the good cards, and perhaps got a bit carried away on this last deal.

I opened the North hand 1♠ - a poor decision. The hand is weak and lacks a good rebid. When Anna responded 2♥ I had to bid 2♠. Unwilling to commit to Spades, Anna tried 3♣, in theory natural but here bid on just a fragment. I could have bid 3NT now, but depsite my weak hand, didn't want to miss out on a Club slam so tried 4♣. Anna ended our unconvincing auction with a jump to 6NT. West led a Diamond.

All Vul W deal ♠ K 9 8 x x ♥ J ♦ K x x ♣ A T x x ♠ J x ♥ x x ♦ Q T x x x x ♣ x x x 11 3 6 20 ♠ A T x x ♥ T 9 x x x ♦ J ♣ J x x ♠ Q x ♥ A K Q x x ♦ A x x ♣ K Q x
Katie Danny Andy Anna W N E S 1♠ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♣ - 4♣ - 6NT - - -

6NT is not a good contract. You have 1 Spade trick available, 4 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 3 Clubs. Ten tricks. To make it you need two extra, which could come from Hearts splitting 4-3 (good odds) and Clubs 3-3 or a winning finesse (not so good). My singleton Jack of Hearts is a vital card, and as is often the case in 6NT, every high-card point is essential. An extra high card point would make it a good slam - for example if I had the Jack of Spades.

Anna took the sensible line of playing on Hearts, and the game was soon up when they split 5-2. She then tried the Clubs, and even though East had long Hearts (therefore expected to have shorter Clubs) she sensed that West did not have the Jack of Clubs so correctly played for the drop. But that just took her up to 11 tricks, and 6NT-1.

Looking at all four hands, you can make the contract I think. East has the Hearts covered with five of them, and he is also protecting the Spades. So if you begin by cashing your two Diamonds and four Clubs East has to find two additional discards. He can't afford to throw any Hearts, so must throw two Spades, and then you can set up the Spades. This line is crazy in real life, as it involves removing your own Ace-King of Diamonds before knocking out the Spade Ace, so only works when the Diamond suit is split something like this.

I thought at the time Anna could have made it (without such double-dummy play), but I think I'd had too much cheese.