My least favorite hand from Nashville (ever?)

[fred]

My team was down close to 70 IMPs at the halfway point of our round-of-8 Spingold match yesterday, but we were mounting a strong charge in the 2nd half of that 64-board match.

 

With about 8 boards left, my partner (Brad Moss) led the Queen of clubs against 6 hearts. Dummy had Kxxx of clubs and I had Axx.

 

I also had the A109x of spades sitting over dummy's Kxxx.

 

Declarer had shown a 2-suiter with hearts and diamonds, but I had no idea what his black suit distribution was. Dummy had (foolishly) jumped to 6H without bidding Blackwood.

 

So I had to decide whether to make the normal play of ducking the first trick or making the highly unusual play of overtaking with my Ace in order to (try to) cash my Ace of spades. This play would be necessary if declarer was 1-1 in the black suits as I could see that my Ace of clubs was ruffing out.

 

Nice problem to have!

 

I sat there for a good 5 minutes thinking about my trick 1 play. Of course, once I thought for more than a few seconds, this told my partner that I had the Ace of spades since there was absolutely nothing else I could be thinking about in this situation. As such, I could not hope that giving count in clubs and leaving it to Brad to work things out would do the trick - my hesitation had made it impossible for Brad to (cleanly) switch to spades.

 

Eventually I decided to duck the first trick. Much to his credit, Brad, who "knew the hand" now, continued clubs and the declarer (who really had 1-1 in the blacks) made his slam off 2 Aces.

 

The final result of the match was that our team lost by 3 IMPs!

 

If I had guessed right we would have won by over 20 IMPs. The same would be true if this absurd layout of the cards had not existed - on just about any distribution of the missing cards in the defenders' hands there would have been no chance for a misdefense.

 

If the opponents had not bid a slam off 2 Aces we would have won by about 10 IMPs.

 

Ever get the feeling that the great shuffler in the sky has dealt a hand for the purposes of laughing at you? :)

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[Echognome]

That is truly a difficult situation. Very well done to Brad to maintain the highest ethical standards. As they say, "There's no softer pillow than a clear conscious." You might have lost this round, but you will win many more with the same grace, dignity, and ethics that you have shown here.

[Guest Jlall]

fred, thats just brutal man

[Edmunte1]

- It's now important to win, but it's important how to win, to do it ethically and with grace, it's the only way you can enjoy the victory, and to feel that you did the right thing. Congrats to Brad for this.

- I would have played count in clubs in tempo and let partner in hot seat, he should work it out.

- Declarer should have covered the Queen, giving you a blind guess (0-2 or 1-1?)

[han]

I think declarer needed the club king to pitch the spade, so covering is not a good idea.

 

If you can give count in tempo and your partner can figure out to switch to a spade then that's very good indeed.

[cherdano]

Well said Justin, well done Brad.

[Guest Jlall]

Why would brad ever work it out? He must assume the opps have bid a slam off 2 cashing aces, and must read your unreadable count card (since it's either Axx or Ax).