Bridge - The Scotsman 18/06/13
Heather Dhondy reported this deal from the Mixed Teams in Poznan, where the Webers from Germany found a great defence. Perhaps the most significant decision came in the auction, where East, taking the vulnerability into account, did not make any sort of pre-emptive overcall in spades. Once Jeremy Dhondy had opened the bidding Heather was always going to ignore West’s overcall and bid the heart game.
West led an innocent-looking two of spades. East could recognize this as a singleton, but declarer had no inkling. We can see that Heather makes ten tricks easily by winning, cashing dummy’s top hearts, crossing to a diamond honour and drawing trump. But it seemed likely that West had the king of spades, and a successful finesse would allow a club discard in case trump broke 4-1. What risk was there in playing low from dummy? East won the king, but did not immediately return a spade, which would allow declarer to discard a club. Instead she led an extremely clever two of clubs. West won the jack, and underled his remaining honours, expecting partner to ruff and play a spade. She won the ten of clubs, and, with three tricks in the bag, finally played a second spade to bring about a trump promotion. Whatever declarer did, she could no longer avoid losing a heart