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I've Been in Worse Slams

I've Been in Worse Slams

This deal comes from the Sarasota-Manatee Regional in 2014. South held:

bridge card suit32
bridge card suitAJ987
bridge card suitK92
bridge card suitAK2
. With both sides vulnerable in a knockout match, his partner dealt and opened 1bridge card suit. South responded 2bridge card suit, natural and game forcing. Opener rebid 2bridge card suit (presumably showing 6 or more spades).  I don't like raising spades with only two, much preferring 2NT with a hand like South's.  North now jumps to 4bridge card suit. What does that mean? In the 2/1 GF system, jumps to game in previously bid suits are the weakest actions. North is showing a minimum with no slam interest. South has nice controls, but if slam was in North's thinking, he should have bid only 3bridge card suit.  South doesn't have enough extras to make another move. The bridge card suitJ is led and dummy tables:

bridge card suitAQ8754
bridge card suitKQ10
bridge card suit875
bridge card suit4
bridge card suit32
bridge card suitAJ987
bridge card suitK92
bridge card suitAK2

I've been in worse slams. If both majors behave, it is possible that six hearts will make. But, this declarer was in only 4bridge card suit. Follow his thinking and see if you can figure out where he went wrong. He took the first two tricks with the bridge card suitAK, throwing a low diamond from dummy. Next he took a spade finesse, the bridge card suitQ losing to the king. East played back a high club, ruffed in dummy. Declarer, now unable to set up and use spades (dummy had only 2 trumps remaining), changed tac. He had already lost a spade trick and still had bridge card suitK92. He led towards his bridge card suitK, but that lost to the ace and LHO nastily switched to a trump. Another diamond begot another trump from the defense. In the end, declarer had to lose a 3rd diamond trick for down 1.

Where did he go wrong? Taking the first 2 clubs (throwing a diamond) followed by a spade finesse was a reasonable start. Nothing else is obviously any better. The mistake came after East took the bridge card suitK and played a high club. On this trick, declarer should have thrown a diamond from dummy! This beautiful loser-on-loser play gives the defense no answer. Here was the Real Deal:

Vul: Both
Dir: North
bridge card suitAQ8754
bridge card suitKQ10
bridge card suit875
bridge card suit4
bridge card suit109
bridge card suit654
bridge card suitAQ3
bridge card suitJT853
bridge card suitKJ6
bridge card suit32
bridge card suitJ1064
bridge card suitQ976
bridge card suit32
bridge card suitAJ987
bridge card suitK92
bridge card suitAK2

After declarer throws dummy's second diamond, what can the defense do? If they switch to trump, declarer sets up spades and draws trump ending in dummy. If they play more clubs, declarer can ruff in hand, set up spades and again draw trump ending in dummy. Lastly, if the defense plays diamonds, declarer gets to ruff his third diamond in dummy, losing only 2 minor-suit tricks. Credit David Berkowitz and Alan Sontag for the accurate defense (benefiting when declarer went wrong).