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South opened a 12-14 1NT, passed out. Anna could have stretched a bit to bid 2♦, showing a 6 card major, but didn't fancy it. North passed, and so did I. Anna lead the fourth highest ♠7. When North put down her 9 point dummy she said that she could have bid, but didn't have enough points. She added that if she wanted to bid, she'd have to take here shoes off. I didn't know what this meant, but declarer seemed to understand, and called for the ♠6 from dummy. I covered this and she won the ♠K in hand.
Clearly, Anna has found the killer lead. From my perspective, sitting East, if the ♠7 is indeed fourth highest then I know that Anna has all the remaining high Spades, and probably five or six of them. I can also see my ♦AQ sitting nicely over dummy's ♦KJ.
After winning her ♠K declarer started on Clubs. She cashed the ♣A then finessed the ♣J. I eagerly took my Queen and returned a Spade, to Anna's delight. At this point I should paraphrase Mike Lawrence's Bols Bridge Tip:
You are now in charge. Each one a little firmer than the one before, you pound out your remaining Spades. You're feeling a little ecstasy mixed with a little power as you turn the final Spade. Feels good, doesn't it? Now what? Cutting through a euphoric glow, you reconstruct the last four tricks. Partner discarded the - what did he discard?
With my Club and Anna's five Spades we had six tricks. If Anna switched to a Diamond we had at least two more tricks. If she played something else, declarer could get all the last tricks and make the contract. I knew I wanted a Diamond switch, and on my first discard on Spades played the ♥6 - we play McKenny so this high card asks for a high suit. On my second discard I wanted to make it really clear that the ♥6 was a high Heart, asking for Diamonds, so now threw away the ♥3. This meant baring the singleton ♥K, but I figured it was worth it to make a clear signal, as I knew a Diamond switch would take the contract down.
On the next Spade I threw a Club. Then with West on lead to cash the last Spade this was the situation:
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Anna led her last Spade. Dummy threw a Heart, and I had another discard to make. Inspired by Barristan the Bold I decided that I might as well keep all my Diamonds, so threw away my ♥K. Declarer threw away a Diamond from hand. This was also bold, as she was keeping winners at the risk of throwing away a Diamond stop.
In her excitement at cashing all the Spades Anna had indeed missed my discards, so now had a guess. Although I didn't intend it this way, me throwing ♥K was a big clue that I didn't want Hearts, and she correctly switched to a Diamond. I then took five Diamond tricks, meaning declarer had only won the first two tricks. The result of 1NT-5 gave us +250. This was aggregate scoring, so didn't help too much, but nice anyway.
Later, there was some bold bidding.
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1: Bold |
I opened the East hand 1♠, and Anna replied 1NT. Since Anna has 6-9 points, and I only have 15, I was going to pass, especially as I think to rebid 2♥ I ought to have 5431 shape. I decided to bid, and it worked out well as Anna was able to raise, and I bid a good game. I got a trump lead, so was able to discard a Club, and made the hand on a cross-ruff.
Finally, here's some boldness that didn't pay off.
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I had the big fat East hand, and opened 1♦. Anna had only four points, but is well worth a bid. She bid 1♥, and North had an easy double. I was undeterred, and decided to go to at least game. I bid 3♠, as a splinter. Anna actually has quite a good hand opposite my splinter, with extra trumps and a seven loser hand, but wisely decided to sign off in game. It was still enough for North to double. I thought about redoubling, which I've never done before, but passed.
If Anna has any one of the four cards of ♣AK and ♥AK game would be easy, or even if we got a nice Spade lead. Unfortunately though North cashed the ♣AK, and it had to go one off. 4♥x-1 was worth -100.
Afterwards South said that she thought of bidding 4♠ - not sure what would happen then (would Anna double, would I pass?), but if everyone passes it might go one down.
In the end we finished the night third overall, with -170 points.
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