Last year, I was dragged out of semi-retirement to play in a local Regional. In the knocout finals, our team was trailing late in the match and we surely needed a few big swings. An opportunity arose when I was dealt (neither side vulnerable):
K84 AJ AJ873 972
Partner opened 4 (Namyats). What's that? Stayman spelled backwards, of course. This convention is used to show a "good" 4-of-a-Major opening bid (stronger than opening 4). Partner's 4 bid showed a good 4 opener and I could bid 4 with slam interest. More than interested (I'd say "desperate") I overbid by jumping directly to 6.
The A was led and I saw:
I was hoping for a bit more, but at least I had a chance. Sure, the clubs might be friendly, but there is something better. Do you see it? I ruffed in dummy and hoped to set up my diamonds. The key is not to draw even one round of trump. I came to the A, threw a diamond on the K and trumped a diamond high (all following). A heart to the ace for another diamond ruffed high saw everyone follow to all of those red cards. Now a heart to the jack drew the last trump and two good diamonds gave me 12 very lucky tricks:
With the clubs wrong, it was necessary to play as described. Notice that with a club lead, I can't even make 4! It's hard to blame West for the opening lead -- a bit of a guess.
We did win this battle but lost the war. We fell just short in our comeback attempt.
