Attack! Destroy!
Playing in a regional Flight A pairs where everyone
has over 1000 masterpoints, I sit down as West against
a pair that I do not recognize.
| K103
632
KQ6432
4 | |
J762
KQ5
A985
J10 |  | |
| | |
North | South |
2 | 2NT |
3 | 3NT |
Pass | --- |
2
was a weak two in diamonds and 3
showed a spade feature. Since I expect declarer to
be well-prepared for a heart lead, I choose to try to
attack the entry to the long diamonds by leading a
spade.
Declarer plays low from dummy and wins partner's
8 with the 9. That turns out to have been
a mistake as we shall see. Declarer continues with
the
J, which I, of course, duck, partner
following with the 10. She is not very happy that the
diamond held and thinks for a little while. (1000?
Really?) When she continues with a small spade towards
dummy, I am ready to destroy the entry to the diamonds
by hopping in with the Jack. She wins the King and plays
a diamond off the table, but I win this and exit with a club,
holding declarer to only eight tricks. The whole hand
was:
| K103
632
KQ6432
4 | |
J762
KQ5
A985
J10 |  | 84
J1084
107
Q8732 |
| AQ95
A97
J
AK965 | |
Declarer should have won the first trick with a high
spade, so that my entry-destroying play would not work.
Then she would have made the contract.
Copyright © 1994 Jeff Goldsmith