Sunday 17 January 2021

Finding the overtrick

Last night Anna and I had another go at the EBU pairs. I bid and defended quite recklessly, and got lucky as pretty much everything came off. The high point of good fortune was bidding a terrible 3NT that relied on getting four tricks from ♠AJ92 opposite ♠K6.

The hand below was the most interesting:

North made a light third-in-hand 1♦ opening, which Anna overcalled 1♥. She should really double first with six hearts and 16+, but the overcall worked well enough here when I supported with 2♥ and she could bid game.

South lead a Diamond to the Queen and Ace. There are now ten tricks - six Hearts, two Diamonds, a Spade and a Club. Anna drew trumps then used the Club entry to take a Spade finesse. This would gain a trick if North had both missing honours, but as it is he ducked correctly to South's ♠Q and later Anna had to give a trick to the ♠K.

4♥= was a common score and got 46%.

The wining play is to realise that you need to finesse Spades twice, so need two dummy entries. That means ruffing a Diamond in dummy, even though it's a winner. As Anna agreed afterwards, it would be easier if you'd be dealt ♦Axx.

We finished on 62.8%, good enough for 11th out of 102 pairs.

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