Missed Victory

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Board 118, EW Vul. Del. E

 

--------Martel

--------S 3

--------H T9754

--------D JT4

--------C Q962

 

Rodwell-----------Meckstroth

S AJ976-----------S T

H KQJ-------------H 8632

D 63--------------D K9875

C AJ5-------------C T84

 

--------Stansby

--------S KQ8542

--------H A

--------D AQ2

--------C K73

 

E S W N

P 1S 1N P

2C 2S Dbl All pass

 

This is the decisive board of the semifinal of

USBC. Only 3 boards to go, Meltzer's team leading

by 14 IMPs. Badly needing a score, Rodwell whipped

this shaky 2S by Stansby. Stansby would have locked

their win had he made his contract.

 

Rodwell led the King of hearts. Stansby won per

force and played the King of spades, a clever

manoeuvre to grab a timing. Since any return would

cost a trick or help declarer to shorten his trumps,

Rodwell correctly let the King hold. Stansby then

played a club to Queen...

 

At this point, the only way to make the contract is

to lead Diamond J or 10 from table, requiring DK onside,

finesse the King without costing an entry.

 

unfortunately, stansby called a heart and ruff in hand,

then exited with 8 of spades, Rodwell won the 9, and was

said, for 3 minutes, he's replaying every cards in his

mind before he exited with J of spades at the following

situation.

 

--------Martel

--------S

--------H T97

--------D JT4

--------C 96

 

Rodwell----------Meckstroth

S AJ6------------S

H Q--------------H 86

D 63-------------D K987

C AJ-------------C T8

 

--------Stansby

--------S Q54

--------H

--------D AQ2

--------C K7

 

Rodwell still had Queen of hearts to exit if he got

thrown-in again. There's no escape for the declarer.

 

Some commentators argued that Stansby should be able

to "know"the King of diamonds was onside when the CQ

held, since Rodwell was known to have SA, SJ, HK, HQ,

CA... Well, I am not conviced, there's still room

for the King of Diamonds in his hand, because,

at least, you have no idea where the missing

jacks(HJ & CJ at the moment)are.

 

Later, I found out that, actually, 2S can be made

regardless the position of Diamond King. I guess

unless one has met the situation before, it's very

hard to spot it at the table.

 

You win the opening lead, play SK and it holds, now,

comes the most crucial and sensational play, the

Queen of Diamonds!

 

East can't duck this one. And since your clubs is

intact at this point, a club return can't hurt you.

The best East could do is to return a diamond, which

you win in dummy... and then a one way straight

line to reach the following situation, at which point

you 've taken 6 tricks already:

 

--------S

--------H T9

--------D J

--------C 962

 

S AJ96----------S

H ---------------H 8

D ---------------D 987

C AJ------------C T8

 

--------S Q85

--------H

--------D A

--------C K7

 

Now you throw out the Ace of diamonds, no one can

prevent you from scoring another 2 tricks.

 

In the situation one is playing a low level contract,

and threatened by very long trumps in opponent's hand,

the general idea, I think, is to score one's trump

AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE and grab the side suit tricks

along the way. Also, one needs to prevent defenders

from shortening their trumps.The play of Queen of

diamonds serves a double-shot purpose, if it holds,

it scores an extra trick, if not, it create an entry in

dummy so that declarer can shorten his trumps enough to

endplay West.

 

one more thing, it won't work if you play DQ before

drawing one round of trump. Since east could return

a trump, and with diamonds unlocked, west would grab

the ace and exit with no cost. The difference here is

that you didn't score a high trump before the endplay,

and therefore it won't work, try it yourself if you

are in doubt.