Botched

Playing in a midnight swiss teams with a new, but strong, partner and woeful teammates, I pick up

K943

A765

AQJ3 Partner opens 1

, I respond 1

, and he raises to 2

. I would like to bid 3

, a splinter bid, but partner is not fond of artificial bids when a natural one will do, so I foolishly jump to 6

. This goes down, but in the post-mortem I correct to 6NT, buy this dummy, and have a play problem:

	KQ9 AJ72 Q432 97

	A K943 A765 AQJ3

West leads a small spade and I find that I am in a bad contract. I have three spade tricks, two heart tricks, one diamond, and one club for a total of seven. Even if I bring in the hearts and the club hook is on, that is only eleven tricks, so I need either a diamond trick or a squeeze. I need to either rectify the count or play for a club-diamond strip squeeze, which, while possible, seems unlikely. It must be right to duck a diamond now, which will rectify the count and maybe even acquire my twelfth trick. If East has four clubs and the diamond King, ducking in both hands will work to rectify the count for a simple squeeze instead of the strip-squeeze, and I might drop the

K doubleton, or West might rise with it.

I win the spade and play a low diamond. West flinches (this is a zip swiss, after all, and we have already lost a match) and hops up with the King. She exits with a spade, which I win, pitching a diamond. I take this opportunity to finesse clubs, which I am happy to see win, and cash the A. All follow, so I have eleven tricks without hearts. Given the quality of the defenders, running my tricks now is a huge favorite, so I am not willing to try the heart hook. After a few rounds of diamonds and spades, East is clearly under pressure and gives up a club, alleviating the need for a trick twelve decision which I would be sure to get right.

Now if only I had been able to impress partner with this at the table instead of the post-mortem....