A very unusual defence

[cherdano]

1. In this hand, West as defender is on lead 5 times. Every single time, he can beat the contract, but instead chooses a card that allows declarer to make the contract!
   
2. The contract still goes down!!
   
3. The defender is Brogeland!!!
   

http://tinyurl.com/yaj57d45

 

(From my sample of kibitzing vugraph, Brogeland is the single best card player I have seen.)

[smerriman]

Unless I'm missing something, based on GIB analysis, only 3 of the 5 times on lead is the wrong card chosen (trick 2 nothing works, and trick 9 the right card is played).

 

Still, a pretty interesting hand! Both sides desperately trying to get the other to lead the killing diamond :)

[The_Badger]

I believe many of us lesser mortals would have played the cards exactly in the same way as Brogeland. It's a tough one (certainly for me) to visualise. Great hand still! Thanks for posting.

 

"The Battle of Trump Reductions" seems an apt name.

[awm]

Funny hand! I would think the situation where you're trying to shorten yourself to avoid being endplayed in trumps is not that unusual; a bit surprising Brogeland didn't see it. Then again he has been playing four-handed in one of the world's toughest events for quite some time now (as has his opponent).

 

One observation here is that South does not know who has the diamond queen. The contract is "cold" for him double-dummy, but really it's on a guess that he's hoping Brogeland will take for him. Taking a losing diamond finesse into Lindqvist's hand would lead to down a lot. On the other side, Brogeland may be trying to avoid giving away the diamond queen location (which again, South doesn't know).