Okome

We played this hand today in Okome, a Japanese restaurant.

No one vul S deal ♠ K Q x x ♥ K x x ♦ K Q J x ♣ A x ♠ J x x ♥ Q J x ♦ x x x ♣ K Q x x 18 9 9 4 ♠ x ♥ A x x x x x ♦ A T ♣ J x x x ♠ A x x x x ♥ x ♦ 9 x x x ♣ x x x

Alex W N E S 1♠ - 4♠ - - -

The South player found a bold 1♠ bid. Something of an overbid, but he is only seven years old. His partner was an Aloe Vera bottle who was kindly making up the table. The bottle had a comfortable 4♠ bid, luckily with a bit to spare.

West led a top Club. Declarer won, and drew trumps in three rounds. Then he led a Diamond up to the King and Ace. East won, took a Club, and returned the ♦T. Declarer recognised his ♦9 was a winner, so now he had ten tricks. He gave up a Heart and claimed the rest, putting the cards aside to tuck into the chocolate moon-balls.

Dummy Reversal

Often this blog is about my blunders, but this one I played nicely. The other night in a friendly game online I was declarer in 4♥. 6♥ would have been good, but it was matchpoints so I had to forget about that and try and make as many tricks as possible.

Assuming Hearts split 3-2, there are 12 top tricks (two Spades, five Hearts, five Clubs). But can you get 13? If you ruff three Diamonds in dummy, you can get 13 tricks (two Spades, three Hearts, three Diamonds, five Clubs). You have enough entries to do this. The only danger is that you can't draw all the trumps, so someone might ruff in.

As it happens the Clubs were 3-1 the wrong way, so there was a ruff. But it only cost me the trick I gained, so I still ended up with 4♥+2, like nearly everyone else.