A minor point but did declarer take the first spade in hand or in dummy? If the former, does he have the entries late on to take two club finesses, assuming West covers the CK as East will surely take the DK when he has the chance and play a third?
It is a horrible slam, although how should the auction start after 1H 3H (limit) say? Noth presumably bids 4C, South 4S and now North will have the pleasure of playing the hand. South’s 6H seems precipitous to say the least though, as North hasn’s splintered. Still, if South does bid 4S over 4H, there will be no chance of stopping North especially with that extra trump. Nice to know that even top players can have the occasioan “funny five minutes” though!
Regards,
Iain
Bobby WolffFebruary 5th, 2021 at 4:16 pm
Hi Iain,
Probably in an effort to not abuse our word limit, we took short cuts with our descriptions.
There would be a reason for East to duck the second diamond led from dummy if partner was dealt QJ doubleton instead of a singleton.
However, whether done or not, the saving of South’s spade entry would become critical for success (taking two club finesses against West).
Perhaps the only gain might be a change of the oft used parable “Two wrongs make a right” to three (including the mis-sort).
As far as getting to this terrible slam, probably started out with North (after not mis-sorting) either opening the bidding with 2NT and tempting South to eventually blast to slam after finding the heart fit, or if North only started with 1 heart, South deemed his hand worth more than a limit raise and between them overreached, but then followed by overplaying, while all other NS’s were faced with the 4-0 heart break, convincing them to start with a low club to the queen, hoping for magic in clubs in order to not have to guess diamonds, but probably not since declarer did not ruff a spade in dummy before drawing all the trump.
Yes, three wrongs did make a right. If so, just contemplate what four wrongs could do, (which did happen with our description, forcing you to have to deal with my nonsense.
Bobby WolffFebruary 5th, 2021 at 4:20 pm
and how about five since I did not offer a closed
parenthesis.
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Hi Bobby,
A minor point but did declarer take the first spade in hand or in dummy? If the former, does he have the entries late on to take two club finesses, assuming West covers the CK as East will surely take the DK when he has the chance and play a third?
It is a horrible slam, although how should the auction start after 1H 3H (limit) say? Noth presumably bids 4C, South 4S and now North will have the pleasure of playing the hand. South’s 6H seems precipitous to say the least though, as North hasn’s splintered. Still, if South does bid 4S over 4H, there will be no chance of stopping North especially with that extra trump. Nice to know that even top players can have the occasioan “funny five minutes” though!
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
Probably in an effort to not abuse our word limit, we took short cuts with our descriptions.
There would be a reason for East to duck the second diamond led from dummy if partner was dealt QJ doubleton instead of a singleton.
However, whether done or not, the saving of South’s spade entry would become critical for success (taking two club finesses against West).
Perhaps the only gain might be a change of the oft used parable “Two wrongs make a right” to three (including the mis-sort).
As far as getting to this terrible slam, probably started out with North (after not mis-sorting) either opening the bidding with 2NT and tempting South to eventually blast to slam after finding the heart fit, or if North only started with 1 heart, South deemed his hand worth more than a limit raise and between them overreached, but then followed by overplaying, while all other NS’s were faced with the 4-0 heart break, convincing them to start with a low club to the queen, hoping for magic in clubs in order to not have to guess diamonds, but probably not since declarer did not ruff a spade in dummy before drawing all the trump.
Yes, three wrongs did make a right. If so, just contemplate what four wrongs could do, (which did happen with our description, forcing you to have to deal with my nonsense.
and how about five since I did not offer a closed
parenthesis.