A Killing Duck

Playing in the finals of a national pair event, we sit down against some seeded opposition. LHO deals and they have an uninterrupted auction to 4

. I lead a high club (attitude) and see

	72 K106 AJ9742 A3
K86 3 K1083 87652

Dummy Me Declarer Partner

1 Pass 1 Pass

2 Pass 2 Pass

2 Pass 4 All Pass

I don't think I'd've bid North's hand as he did, but that's not my problem.

Declarer ducks the opening lead to partner's K. He continues with the Q, won in dummy. That's obviously a singleton, but even so seems like a bad plan to me. Declarer probably is going to need the diamonds, since hearts are not breaking, so it's probably right to let declarer deal with them himself.

Anyway, declarer wins the diamond in dummy and leads a trump to his Q. I duck in tempo. I see no reason to give partner a ruff, as one diamond pitch won't do declarer much good, so I plan to win the next diamond. Since entries to dummy seem scarce, painting a false picture of the hand for declarer seems best. The chance to win the K comes soon; declarer leads a diamond from hand. I win and exit with a club. Declarer is worried about a 4-2 trump break, so he tries the winning J from dummy. Partner ruffs and is overruffed. Declarer crosses back to the K and takes another trump finesse. This time it loses and I tap him with another club. He's now stuck in his hand, and after drawing the last trump and cashing the A, must concede the last two tricks to partner's Q and long club.

The full hand was

	72 K106 AJ9742 A3
K86 3 K1083 87652		543 Q9875 Q KJ104
	AQJ109 AJ42 65 Q9

I didn't have a clear idea of where I was going when I ducked the trump, but it worked wonders. +200 produced 62 out of 64 matchpoints.

Dummy	Me	Declarer	Partner
1	Pass	1	Pass
2	Pass	2	Pass
2	Pass	4	All Pass