Report from the Trials -- Deal 3

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Trials Deal 3

This is my last exhibit from the 2007 Team Trials:

Yes, I had a HCP minimum, but I liked my aces. I suppose the final contract wasn't so hot, but I was treated to the lead of the club deuce (low from odd, third from even). This was a most welcome lead. If clubs were 3-3 (as the deuce seemed to imply), I would be able to lose a club trick, but set up the fourth club to throw a diamond from dummy. Then, I would need only to find the ♥Q to make the contract. I played low from dummy and won the ♣J (East played the ♣8). I tried two top trumps. Had the ♠10 fallen, I planned to come to my ♠9 to lead a low club towards dummy's queen (just in case LHO had led from the king and had more than three). However, both opponents followed low on the top spades. Not wanting to break the red suits yet, I drew the last trump (RHO tossing a diamond) and played a club from dummy. Disaster! RHO showed out. I won my ace to leave:

What now? With no more club tricks, I would need a miracle. Can you see it?

First of all, I'd have to guess the heart queen. Next, I would need two diamond tricks, the second of which would be a parking place for dummy's club loser. For this to work, I'd need RHO to have both the king and queen of diamonds. (I couldn't let LHO in as he had the good club). So, with little hope, I had to cross to dummy to play a diamond towards my ace-jack-nine. In the process, I would need to locate the ♥Q.

Since RHO was known to be 2-1 in the black suits, he was an overwhelming favorite to hold the ♥Q. Accordingly, I played a heart to dummy's king. Next came a diamond and RHO played the queen. This looked promising. I ducked and basically, the hand was over. This was the full deal:

When RHO (Eric Greco) won the ♦Q, he had to play a red suit. A heart would run to dummy's jack, so he tried another diamond. I finessed, of course, threw dummy's last club on the ♦A, then ruffed a club in dummy to take the heart finesse for 12 very fortunate tricks. It turns out that (double-dummy) only a diamond lead beats the contract (in effect, this prevents declarer from leading a low club up towards dummy's queen). At the other table, declarer received a trump lead and went down one, so our team won 17 IMPs en route to victory. 

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