Staying Power
As most duplicate players will tell you, some hands stay with you for years and others are like a leaf in the wind. There are some players that can recall exactly who had what cards on any board in a session and can describe the right line of play to make the contract. For the rest of us mere mortals, we feel lucky to survive having somehow guessed right or having made a decent deduction at the table. It may seem easy when looking at the boards afterwards, but in the moment, putting the pieces together to make a difficult contract can be tricky. And when you do get an insight into the entire holding of a hand while playing, it is a board that stays with you.
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In the 2018 NAP qualifying game in Jackson, my partner and I were playing against a very good team out of Nashville. As South, I picked up a decent hand:
♠ K Q 7 6 2
♡ A J 4 2
♢ T 4
♣ A T
West opened with 1 ♢, my partner doubled, and after a pass I jumped to 2 ♠ to show my good hand and suit. This got passed out, leaving a rather short auction. Before the lead, West asked about the strength of the 2♠ response and partner acknowledged it as strong, but had mistakenly thought it was weak during the auction - mistakes happen! West then led a low club and I saw my dummy.
♠ A J
♡ 9 8 5 3
♢ K J 8 6
♣ K Q 5
How do you like partner’s double? At the time we played with a rather generous take-out double agreement: 10+ points with at least one four-card suit to run to, so this hand was in-line with our agreement. With only two-card support for spades, partner could have passed even if she had realized the response was strong. When I saw dummy, I was thinking we had missed game, but sometimes that happens when the other side opens first.
I won on the board and took two rounds of trump, East showed out on the second round. That was a shock, and that was when I stopped to take stock. I realized this would be one of those interesting hands, and I was happy to not be on the search for ten tricks (good mistake, partner!). I took the time I needed, and at trick three knew, more or less, the distribution of the hand and where all the missing high cards were. Do you?
Recall that West had opened, so what points outstanding had to be there. And West had opened 1 ♢. Why would West open 1 ♢ when sitting with a five-card spade suit?
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These were good players, who followed the book religiously – we had played them several times before. The only conclusion was that West had a longer Diamond suit, six or more! Now stretch a little further - West opened at the one level. There was no way West could be close to opening count without either the heart King or Queen. So I had a complete picture of West’s distribution: 5-1-6-1, with a stiff honor in hearts.
And then the line was easy. I returned to my hand with the heart Ace, dropping the King of hearts in West as expected. I played the ten of diamonds, taken by the Ace in West, who exited with a low diamond. I confidently called for the eight, and it held as East threw a low club. I played a club, West trumps and exited with another diamond which I won with the Jack and tossed a heart. I played the King of diamonds to toss another heart, and then the last club to dump the last heart, which was trumped in East. I was left with three trumps and claimed, bringing in ten tricks.
So, we did miss game after all. However, our 170 was a top anyway -the scores were all over the place on this board. Here was the full deal.:
♠ A J
♡ 9 8 5 3
♢ K J 8 6
♣ K Q 5
♠ T 8 5 4 3 ♠ 9
♡ K ♡ Q T 7 6
♢ A Q 9 5 3 2 ♢ 7
♣ 3 ♣ J 9 8 7 6 4 2
♠ K Q 7 6 2
♡ A J 4 2
♢ T 4
♣ A T