The above hand occurred in the Junior Individual in Beijing 2008. I opened three diamonds first in hand and this was passed around. West opened a top spade and, not wanting to set up dummy's Q whilst dummy had an entry, switched to the the Q♥ - after a lot of thought.
You are on the dummy, how would you continue?
I decided to play diamonds in the normal way, low to the Q, since West has already shown up with 9HCP and failed to act. This decision was rewarded when the J fell from West - although he would have a safe falsecard from Jx. I felt my next move was best done quickly. If East had started with Kxx in diamonds, he would be wary of giving me an entry to dummy. I quickly placed the K♣ on the table - which was passed all round.
That is two hurdles cleared but where would you go from here? Would it help if I told you I had played with LHO earlier and had judged him unlikely to have falsecard?
I reasoned that West had played true cards and so, if he were short in hearts, he would not be able to ruff. My next play was a hear to the eight. Sure enough, West discarded. Even better though, East panicked and took the heart and tried to cash his A ♣ - players do this after 16 days of bridge. I ruffed, led a heart to the table, discarded my spade on the Q♣, and finessed in trumps.
All this was good for +150 and beat the pairs making nine tricks in hearts. Here is the full layout:
Jamie ..it looks fine but its not like justinlall.com at all. You need to step up the pace. Lall played junior when you were in China and now he is partnering Bob the Hamann. You have a way to go to get Ronan mcMaugh. Thanks Eamon Galligan.
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