V N Ramamoorthy
Ladies and Gentlemen
To quote my favorite writer Alfred Sheinwold, "Every bid tells a story and every card gives a clue" - how true!
Quite often, the challenges to a declarer are posed by the defenders. Occasionally, your CHO (aka partner) may also do the same 😇
On Sunday evening I got invited to play by a total stranger, but the systems he played were extremely familiar and similar to mine, so I accepted.
Later, I found that he is quite an expert with a streak of adventure. And he was quite a punter pushing you to the limits and "Trigger - happy" at that 🙃
Then came this board. He pushed me to a heart slam with wafer thin chances. A heart was led, taken by Ace and in a flash North shifted to a small club.
What went through my mind was "I am up s**t creek without a paddle!"
This is the tale of how I played the hand. This blogger is certainly is NOT an expert. He would love their inputs / comments are on the play for the general benefit of bridge fraternity!
I realised that I needed both Spade and Diamond guesses for her majesty to work for me. So, as advised by my earlier Gurus, when your chips are down, assume that the bridge gods will be kind and the cards are as you need. While the spade finesse was only a one way street, locating the DQ, was a two way gamble. So I decided I needed some help from the opponents to solve this conundrum.😉
I rose with Club A, took the spade hook, and dispatched the club loser on board on spade winner. I then ruffed a club on table and played two rounds of trumps to get the feel. My RHO discarded D8. At this point I asked the opponents about carding and discards.
My RHO replied "Standard", almost too quickly. Now, my RHO had been my regular partner for some time in the past and was quite apt to send red herrings to the declarer!
Which led me to wonder; "Why would he signal / encourage if he held the DQ seeing the diamond cards on table?"
I fell back on Sheinwold : "Mistrust the obvious"!
I nonchalantly played South for DQ and landed the slam 😁. This board gave us an absolute top, perhaps paving way for our podium finish at the top! The only additional clue with me was familiarity with my RHO's habits and tendency and that worked in my favor.
Now over to you stars and experts for lessons to be learnt 🙂
Happy bridging,
Cheers
VNR
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.