Monday 8 March 2021

Listening to the auction

Last night Anna and I played the EBU pairs again.

We discussed this board afterwards:

I led the ♠4 and when dummy played low Anna had a decision to make. She knows I have a Spade honour for my low lead, which could be the Jack or King (or both). Against 3NT the right play would be the 9, but I think on this auction the Ace is right. Declarer has shown five Hearts and at least four Diamonds, so has at most four black cards, with three winning Clubs in dummy. So we are getting at most one Spade trick, hence we should take it.

Anna played low worried about setting up declarer's Queen of Spades. On this layout it doesn't cost, and declarer should make 11 tricks either way. Our declarer misplayed by ruffing a Spade in hand, shortening his own trumps, and could no longer enjoy his long Diamond.

So we got 76% for holding declarer to 4♥=, which goes to show that the best way to get a good score is still the opponents making mistakes, rather than defending accurately.

Overall we got 57%, for 13th/76 and a trickle more EBU masterpoints.

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