Not a lot happening at the Club right now except for the ACBL Wide Charity game held on Thursday — results next week.

The Mixed Pairs is looming on the 13th/17th and the Non Life Master 299er Pairs after that on the 23rd/30th.

This is a really nice hand that came up in a pairs game in London — think hard when planning your play!

Dealer South N/S Vulnerable

North

S K109

H A8743

D A7

C 654

South

S AQJ654

H K65

D 2

C K92

The Bidding was over pretty quickly. South opened One Spade and North raised to Four Spades, a nice practical bid. South was faintly tempted to go further but wisely resisted. If North had K109, AQJ107, A7, 654 he should bid 2 Hearts over a Spade and then jump to 4 Spades as a mild slam try.

West led the Diamond King and Declarer quite fancied his chances — the long Heart could be set up for Club discards — if West had to win the third round of Hearts the contract is totally safe and even if East won the third round the contract would still make if East held the Club Ace.

So declarer won the Diamond, drew two rounds of trumps and played three rounds of Hearts — East won and led the Jack of Clubs and declarer was soon one down! The full hand:

North

S K109

H A8743

D A7

C 654

West

S 83

H 102

D KQJ93

C AQ53

East

S 72

H QJ9

D 108654

C J108

South

S AQJ654

H K65

D 2

C K92

Unlucky? Yes, a bit, but declarer played too quickly at trick one — he should duck the Diamond!

The defence is now helpless…..West exits with the Heart 10 but declarer is in control — win the Heart King, draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, Ace of Diamonds pitching a heart, now Heart Ace, Heart ruffed high setting up the last two Hearts, cross to dummy with a Spade and play the last two Hearts pitching Clubs — 11 tricks!

Really quite easy to see in the post-mortem but how many declarers would see the play at the table? Did you?