Acol at BBO
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Acol at BBO
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| Here’s the bidding again. |
| West Wilma 1  2  3NT |
North Norm Pass Pass Pass |
East Edna 1NT 3  Pass |
South Stuart Pass Pass Pass |
| Now it's time to play the actual contract of 3NT. |
Nutty
Norm  |
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| Weird
Wilma Q
J 7 5 4 10 A Q J 9 4 K Q |
Eerie
Edna
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| Strange
Stuart 9 3 K Q 7 4 3 2 K 6 J 10 6
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| Stuart leads the heart four to the ten, jack and five. North returns the eight, East’s nine and South’s queen. South plays a third round of hearts to remove declarer’s ace. |
| Next comes the ten of diamonds which south covers. Four more diamonds and the king, queen of clubs take the next six tricks. Declarer has eight tricks and these are the cards left in the West/North hands. |
| Nutty
Norm A K 10
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| Weird
Wilma Q
J 7 |
Eerie
Edna
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| Strange
Stuart ---
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| I'm sure you can see how Edna wins a ninth trick by playing a high spade at this point. |
| So if the hand can be defeated, where did the defence go wrong? |
| Rewind to the play to trick three. This is the point at
which South
played a heart to takeout declarer’s ace and establish three tricks in
the suit. But he failed to ask the vital question – “where’s my entry
to hearts?” |
| Like ice sculptures in the Sahara, you can carve them,
but they have the habit of vanishing before you can enjoy them. |
| It’s often useful to reflect that a player who responds 1NT will not hold two aces and a king, or one ace and two kings. On this hand South knows Edna has the heart ace, so she may hold a spade honour or the ace of clubs, but she can’t have both. |
| Almost by a process of
elimination, South should switch to spades after trick two – hearts,
clubs
and diamonds being pointless plays. If North has AK and
the A,
any
defence will succeed, otherwise Norm will need to have the AK10 to
beat the contract. |
| If South plays a spade at trick three, North beats the honour from dummy. And, provided he switches at this point, the defence will come to five tricks. |
| I admit this is a difficult hand to defend - so don’t be upset if the analysis appears a little abstruse. | |
| The main points are: | |
| 1. | If you’re about to establish some tricks - consider how you’ll regain the lead to cash them. |
| 2. | Think about the high cards a player who has responded 1NT might hold. |
| 3. | Try to anticipate any problems that partner might face, and see if there’s anything you can do to help. |
| Here’s the full hand.: |
| Nutty
Norm A K 10 6 J 8 6 7 5 3 2 8 4 |
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| Weird
Wilma Q
J 7 5 4 10 A Q J 9 4 K Q |
Eerie
Edna 8
2 A 9 5 10 8 A 9 7 5 3 2
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| Strange
Stuart 9 3 K Q 7 4 3 2 K 6 J 10 6
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