The spots and the auction
This was one of the hands during Semifinals of the just concluded Mavericks Premier League vs Formidables. They won the match, but we had our moments. This was one of those.
I picked up this hand as East, and South on my left opened a standard 1♦ .
Partner Passed, North bid 1♥ and I chose to bid 1N. LHO continued with 2♣ and partner raised to 3NT. They led ♣ 7
I put up the queen which held. Looks like if lead is from 5 cards, we need H finesse to work. Assuming it does, we have 2 spades, 2 hearts, 1 club and 3 diamonds. Since we can’t concede a trick in another suit, seems like we need to find some squeeze or endplay for 9th trick. The problem with squeeze is if LHO has 2 spades, he can break the squeeze by returning spades. And if we cash all major winners, and then throw him in to force him to play a diamond, he can exit a small diamond which we can run to queen and then finesse one, but there will be no entry back to hand to repeat the finesse. And if take a finesse before the throw in, he can exit with DK and block the suit.
Best is to finesse ♥ Q, and then cash ♠ AK and exit a club. Now we have an entry back if he doesn’t have a major card to exit. This is quite likely if he has 5-5 in minors. Since RHO responded 1♥ , he’ll likely have 5♥ and 4♠ .
Not fully convinced that LHO had 5-5, I chose to finesse ♥ Q and cash the Ace. LHO discarded a ♦ 2, confirming 5-5. But the endplay boat has now sailed.
There was only one hope left.. Look at the diamond spots carefully. If LHO has the all important ♦ 3.. Leaving RHO with 9,8 or 6 singleton..
Lets see the full hand.
I led ♦ Q to King Ace and 8. Back to hand with a spade for 7,9 J and a discard..
Back again with a spade for 5.. and he refused to cover.. if only 4 and 5 could be exchanged. Oh well.. opponents have been helpful so far in revealing their shape and producing what we need. Lets enlist them one more time. So I ran the 5-4-3 and then exited with ♣ J to LHO. best he could do is cash his 4 clubs but then he had to concede his last diamond to dummy.. A stepping stone 4 tricks in advance.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did playing.