Can you make 7 Diamonds with this
deal from an ACBL-sanctioned game several years ago? I was sitting East and my
partner, an advanced player, was West.
North
♠ 654
♥ QJ943
♦ 2
♣
J752
West East
♠ 2 ♠ AQJT9
♥ AK7 ♥ 65
♦ QJT7 ♦ AK54
♣
AKQ98 ♣ 63
South
♠ K873
♥ T82
♦ 9863
♣ T4
Bidding:
South
West North
East
P 1S
P
2C
P 2D
P
2H*
P 2S
P
3D
P 4D
P
4N
P 5C**
P
5N
P 6C***
P
7D! All Pass
* Fourth Suit
Forcing. This means that partner must take another bid. She cannot
pass. Some people play that Fourth Suit Forcing is a game force, which means
that neither can pass until game is bid.
** Roman Key Card Blackwood,
0 or 3 key cards. This is an extension of Blackwood where, in addition to the
four aces, the trump king is also a key card, so if you hold 2 aces and the
king of trump (which I did), you respond with 5C which shows three key cards.
The responses to a bid of 4N are as follows:
5C 0
or 3 key cards
5D 1
or 4 key cards
5H 2
key cards without the trump queen
5S 2
key cards with the trump queen
*** No kings. Since the trump king is a key card, it is not included in this response.
Opening lead: ten of Hearts
The hand is relatively cold for 6N,
but only one pair in this game was in 6N. Some were in 6D, making 6. My partner
showed admirable confidence in me when he put me in 7D even though he knew I
didn’t have the king of spades and he only had one spade for me to make a
finesse. Also, it turned out that everything shaped up wrong. Clubs didn’t
split, the king of spades was offside, and there was a horrible 4-1 trump
split. Can you make 7D?
I took the ace of hearts and led a
low diamond to my king, then another low diamond to the ten. North discarded the
4 of spades, so I got the bad news on the trump split . I started clubs and
South discarded the 4 and 10, so I figured that clubs split badly and that the
king of spades was offside. I took the ace of spades and started a ruffing
finesse sequence with the queen. South covered and I ruffed. I played the king
of hearts and ruffed a heart. That left me with the following holding:
North
♠
♥ QJ
♦
♣ J7
West East
♠ ♠ JT9
♥ ♥
♦ Q ♦ A
♣ Q98 ♣
South
♠ 87
♥
♦ 98
♣
Even though south has two trump to
my one in each hand, the hand is over. I led the two spades and sluffed two
clubs, leaving me with a spade and the trump ace in my hand and a club and the
trump queen on the board. So I trumped the spade with my queen and trumped the
club with the ace, a high cross ruff that smothered South’s two trumps,
making 7 diamonds.
Paradoxically, the only way it can
make is if the spade king is offside. Otherwise the ruffing finesse
would not work.
