Friday, September 23, 2011

Thursday, September 22nd 2011

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Board 15: Roman Key Card Blackwood should keep N/S out of slam, missing an Ace and the King of hearts. An auction like 1H-2C; 4H-4NT; 5D-5H; all pass would be reasonable, where 5D shows 1 or 4 key cards. Slam makes if declarer guesses to drop the stiff King, but there is no obvious reason to make that play.

On lead, West should not consider a club -- if partner has anything there, he'll get it sooner or later. The threat is that a side winner may go away on dummy's clubs. Since East rates to have few values, underleading diamonds is risky. The ten of spades has some hope of helping to set up a trick, and a good chance of not giving anything away. As it happens, the defense collects two spades, and East shifts to a diamond at trick three. Declarer then tries the trump finesse and finishes down one. On a foolish club lead, the defense should still prevail sicne West can find the spade shift after winning the King of hearts -- but declarer might try a safety play, reasoning that he must keep West off lead. Going up with the Ace allows declarer to run the table.

Can the risky five level be avoided? Perhaps South's jump to 4H should deny as many as three key cards or two plus the Queen. With that understanding, North has no reason to disturb 4H.

Board 21: East opens 1C and West shows a balanced 13-15 hcp with a standard 2NT (forcing) or that modern abomination, a direct leap to 3NT. Either way, East counts 8 tricks and expects opener to provide 4 more; it seems unlikely a trump suit will add anything so East jumps straight to 6NT. West wins the lead, tests clubs, and then cashes the Ace of diamonds, one high heart (that may have been the lead) and three spades before running all the clubs, pitching diamonds from his hand. South shuold guard diamonds while North guards hearts; a defensive slip allows declarer to take all 13 tricks.

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