Don't Send a Boy

Playing in our money game, I have won all the matches going into the last one when I pick up

K942

KQ95

AK4. It's a minimum strong notrump, but it qualifies, so I open 1NT. The bidding is simple. Partner Staymans and we end up in 4

. I get the opening lead of the

5 and see that the contract is not cold.

	A1075 1062 KQ83 106

	K942 KQ95 97 AK4

Declarer	Dummy
1NT	2
2	3NT
4	Pass

Just to blow some smoke, I put up the

10 from dummy at trick 1. RHO covers with the queen, and I win. It looks as if I have to lose at least two aces and a trump trick, and if the

A is offside or trumps don't behave, I won't make it. It's possible to take a safety play in trumps either way, but I don't know if I can afford that or which way to take it. I think I need to learn more about the hand first, so I lead the

9 towards dummy and put up the

K. It holds.

Hmmm. Maybe I can get two diamonds, two clubs, one heart, two diamond ruffs, and a club ruff. I'm sure to get the top trumps---that's ten tricks and doesn't depend on the hearts or on trumps breaking. I'll need something good in diamonds and no quick ruffs or anything. If something bad happens, someone could be ruffing with a long trump and I may be able to fall back on hearts in the end, so I fancy this approach. I don't want to release my heart stopper yet, so I cross back to hand with a club. LHO plays the 3 which makes clubs look like they are 5-3. I play another diamond. LHO rises. RHO has followed up the line in diamonds, so it also looks like diamonds are 4-3, but I'm not as confident about that as the clubs. If it's true, I should be able to ruff a diamond safely and continue with my plan.

LHO exits with a club, which I ruff in dummy. It looks safe to cash the Q now, which I do, pitching a heart. I'll try the fourth diamond now. If the ruff passes off, all I need is to be able to score one heart trick and guess trumps in the end, which should be easy. If the diamond gets overruffed, maybe LHO will be ruffing with his trump trick. He might find it tough to exit with a trump from Qx, too, so I may gain on the roundabout. The cards are currently:

	A107 1062 8 —

	K942 KQ9 — —

I suddenly have an idea for a slight improvement. If RHO follows to the diamond, maybe LHO has a stiff trump three. It costs nothing to ruff with the four instead of the two, and it's possible that it might win. Yeah right, but it's free. I lead the last diamond from the dummy. Disappointment! RHO follows. I continue with my plan and ruff with the

4. LHO goes into the tank...and pitches a heart! That's interesting. I try the

K, and LHO thinks, but we are double-dummy now:

	A107 1062 — —
3 AJ8 — J9		QJ86 74 — —
	K92 KQ9 — —

LHO might as well duck the heart, but I just continue with another. He can try to cash a winning heart, but his partner has to ruff and exit with a trump honor. Since I know RHO is 4243 exactly, it's easy to win in dummy and take the marked spade finesse for ten tricks. Or LHO could exit with a trump, but I can win and force RHO to ruff a heart and lead into dummy's trump tenace.

Not surprisingly, declarer at the other table didn't bring this home, so my team wins 12 IMPs and the last match by 9. It's nice to sweep.

I don't think I've ever seen this small an improvement in a line matter before. It was particularly curious because the size of the cards was so small. I guess the moral of the story is "don't send a boy to do a very slightly bigger boy's job."