This deal (rotated)
is from the second round of the Northern Bridge League A division where
the Manchester 2 team were pleased to finish ahead of the Manchester 1
team.
After West had opened one spade (five card majors) and East raised to the two level, Raymond Semp (South) bid three hearts and that ended the auction. West led the queen of spades playing Roman honour leads. Raymond ducked the first trick and won the spade continuation. To make this contract it needs either the hearts to play for no losers or the ace of clubs onside or West to hold Kx of diamonds. Raymond started with the diamond finesse which lost, West playing the nine. Now the jack of clubs was returned to the king and ace, followed by the queen of clubs and then the two of clubs which Raymond trumped. Declarer at this point had lost four tricks, so needed to pick up the trumps for no loser. It looked as though West's most likely distribution was 5323. To confirm this Raymond played another diamond and West followed with the eight. If South's reading of the distribution is correct East only has one heart, which must be the ten or the queen for the contract to make. So Raymond played a heart to the ace, noting the fall of the ten and finessed the heart seven to bring home a well played contract. In the other room Alan and Kath Nelson defeated the same contract for a gain of 7 IMPs. Thanks to Raymond Semp for reporting this deal |
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