Bob Jones
| Dlr: South | ♠ 9 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vul: All | ♥ A 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ A K 8 6 4 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ K 6 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ K 10 6 | ♠ A 8 4 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ Q 10 | ♥ 5 3 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ Q J 7 5 | ♦ 10 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ Q 7 3 | ♣ 10 9 5 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ♠ Q J 7 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♥ K J 9 8 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♦ 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♣ A J 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opening lead: ♣3
It’s possible that you and your partner would have reached a different contract on this deal. It came up late in the cocktail hour and North had been enjoying himself. He had a blind spot over South’s 3♠ bid and thought that South had opened 1♠ and rebid hearts, instead of the other way around. Anyway, the play’s the thing.
The opening club lead went to South’s jack. South had only been drinking iced tea. Declarer cashed the ♥A, and then ruffed a heart in dummy. This was followed by the ♦AK, and then a third diamond. East saw no point in ruffing, so he discarded a club as declarer ruffed low.
South cashed the ♣A and led a club to dummy’s king. That was nine tricks in the bag with two hearts, two diamonds, and three clubs, along with a ruff in each hand. Declarer still had the queen-jack-seven of trumps remaining and there was no way for the defense to prevent him from scoring another trump trick. Four spades bid and made!
East-West didn’t feel too bad about this, telling themselves that South would surely have taken nine tricks in the more traditional contract of 3NT.