Sunday, November 18, 2001		Bridge

LAST week I gave a hand from the Philip Morris European Pairs Championship in Salsomaggiore in which my partner (Pietro Forquet) and I did not shine.

To redress the balance, here is a deal where I thought we did rather well. In a way it was a shame that my hand was as good as it was — we would still have made our slam if I had not been dealt the Jack of Hearts!

East dealt with North-South game and opened One Diamond to leave Pietro (as South) with an awkward bid. There was no really descriptive call to make and he decided to double, at least showing a good hand, and await developments. They were not long in coming — as North I bid Two Diamonds, the opponents’ suit, and Pietro bid Two Spades.

Perhaps over-exuberantly I raised to Five Spades but, when partner made a grand slam try with Six Hearts, settled for Six Spades.

West led his singleton Club, declarer won on the table and led a second round, East took this and (in the hope of trump promotion) played a third round.

This helped our cause for South ruffed high, crossed to dummy with a Diamond ruff, and trumped another Club high in hand to establish the suit.

He then drew two rounds of trumps, ruffed another Diamond and drew the last trump with dummy’s Jack of Spades. Two winning Clubs followed and East had to give up.

As the tournament Bulletin remarked, even if dummy had not held the Jack of Hearts, East would have been finished —he would not have been able to keep the Ace of Diamonds and the guarded King of Hearts.

Then it would have been a perfect example of a reverse dummy play with a squeeze to follow.