The Ones We Should Get Right
Author: Larry Cohen
Date of publish: 01/01/2019
Level: Intermediate
This deal was (mis)played by a Southwestern expert (and National Champion) who shall remain nameless. Can we all make a new year's resolution to get the deals right that we should get right? With both sides vulnerable, his partner dealt and opened 2NT. Responder held:
108432
--
A75432
A4.
He transferred to spades and then bid 4
. This is natural (showing at least 5-4 in spades and diamonds) with slam interest. Opener bid 4
. What's that? Likely some sort of slam interest (certainly not a signoff). Responder didn't know what to do next (Blackwood with a void is generally a poor idea), so he just guessed to jump to 6
. Everyone passed and the
Q was led:
AQ7
A2
KQ986
KQ6
|
|
108432
--
A75432
A4
|
Opener did well to leave you in diamonds (instead of trying for a slightly higher score in 6
). With the shaky spade suit, 6
might fail, while 6
is actually 100%. Can you see how?
This is one of those draw trump, strip the hand and claim deals. Yet, our anti-hero messed it up. He ruffed the opening lead and played a diamond to the king (trumps were 1-1-). He cashed 3 clubs throwing a spade and then the
A throwing another spade. He came to hand with the
A and led a spade to the...queen. Ugh. All he had to to was cover whatever spade LHO played and claim on an endplay. This was the Real Deal:
Vul:Both Dlr: North |
AQ7
A2
KQ986
KQ6
|
|
J95
QJ1087
10
J532
|
|
K6
K96543
J
10987
|
|
108432
--
A75432
A4
|
|
As you can see, the
Q lost to the king and back came a spade, down one.
In my mind, this is an easy one. However, if a national champion could go wrong, I suppose so could you.