Source: Ludington Daily News – 15 Abr 1986
Dealer South. None Vul
|
 K 7 5 4
 A 9 8 2
 J 9 6
 8 3 |
|
| Q 10 2
Q 7 5 3
K 7
Q J 4 2 |
|
—
K 10 6 4
Q 10 8 5 4 2
A 10 5 |
|
A J 9 8 6 3
J
A 3
K 9 7 6 |
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
|
1 |
| Pass |
2 |
Pass |
3 |
| Pass |
4 |
Pass |
Pass |
| Pass |
|
|
|
Opening lead:
3
If you as South, would consider passing after your partner has raised to two spades, you really need to revise your methods of evaluating your hand. Although South’s cards contain only 12 high-card points (give nothing for the singleton heart jack), the fact that your partner has supported spades turns the hand to gold.
You may want to give North a chance to sign off at three spades if he made a garbage raise, but no competent player would fault South if he went right to game. In fact, South tried with three clubs and North himself was happy to go to game.
Now look how declarer mangled the play of the hand. He won dummy’s heart ace and immediately played a spade to his ace, not expecting trumps to split badly. Then a spade back to the king, and only now did our declarer play up to his king of clubs.
Even with this bad start, he still would have succeeded if East had risen with the club ace, but no such luck. East played low, and South won the king and played another club. West rose with the jack and cashed the spade queen, and now declarer was able to ruff only one club loser and had to fail by a trick.
It’s not a difficult hand.
Since declarer will have to play clubs anyway, he should do so before either opponent can draw a third round of trumps. He can start clubs at trick two (or at trick three after first cashing the spade king) but he must manage so that, come what may, he will be able to trump the third and fourth clubs in the dummy.
