This
interesting deal was from the last match of the
Tollemache final in February.
When
North opened three spades Alan Mould overcalled
three notrump. South now raised the pre-empt
to four spades.
I
doubled to show some values, apparently four notrump
is the correct bid here. Alan now leapt to six
clubs, South believed him and sacrificed in six
spades.
I
doubled again as I had no first round spade control,
though Alan thinks pass is correct to show
suitability for six notrump.
Anyway
six spades went three off losing a spade, two hearts
and a diamond for a score of 500.
How
would East West slams have fared? Well six
clubs is off on a spade lead to North and a diamond
returned. East cannot cash the ace of diamonds
without it getting ruffed. Even drawing trumps
ending in dummy doesn't help as you can only play
two rounds and they split 3-0.
Six
notrump is easy on a spade lead, but what about on
the jack of hearts lead? This seems to set up
a heart trick for the defence as well as the ace of
spades and declarer has only eleven obvious
tricks. It can be made though, try it and then
scroll down for the solution.
To
make six notrump on the jack of hearts lead cover
the jack with the queen, king and ace.
Then
run all the clubs, South is caught in a squeeze
without the count.
The
end position is as below with South to discard.
If
South discards a diamond then declarer has three
diamond tricks, whereas if he discards a heart,
declarer can take the diamond finesse and then exit
with the nine of hearts to South's jack and he has
to lead a diamond for another finesse.
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