[lamford]

---

My late fried and bridge partner Colin Elliott (Elks) passed away recently after a long illness, and I recalled our funniest moment together. I was South, and out to lunch in the auction, with Colin's version of Precision. Still, the play is the thing. You avoid the diamond lead, and get the eight of spades. How are you going to make this?

I managed to bring it home, so my declarer play was better than my bidding, but my joy was short-lived as the TD came and said "You should not be playing that board; you should take your boards from the relay table ... You get 40% now for the correct board."

RIP Colin Elks (Elliott) 14th March 1957 - 29th September 2024

[mikeh]

If you made this….and had they let you keep the score….you should have bought a lottery ticket on your way home

Spoiler

I don’t think you can double hook hearts even if you win the lead in hand and play the club king…even if they win it, giving you spade and club (to the 10) entries, you’ll end up a trick short and you’ll need a squeeze for your 12 th trick, with no entry to dummy in either black suit.

Since you’re playing for QJ tight in hearts, there is no need to play that suit now…forcing pitches from dummy. So win in hand, club King. How it goes thereafter depends on the defence. For example, if they continue spades, win in dummy and run the hearts. The clubs can wait.

[lamford]

mikeh, on 2024-November-11, 13:11, said:

If you made this….and had they let you keep the score….you should have bought a lottery ticket on your way home

Spoiler

I don’t think you can double hook hearts even if you win the lead in hand and play the club king…even if they win it, giving you spade and club (to the 10) entries, you’ll end up a trick short and you’ll need a squeeze for your 12 th trick, with no entry to dummy in either black suit.

Since you’re playing for QJ tight in hearts, there is no need to play that suit now…forcing pitches from dummy. So win in hand, club King. How it goes thereafter depends on the defence. For example, if they continue spades, win in dummy and run the hearts. The clubs can wait.

West had 98xx QJ Qxx Jxxx and his partner castigated him for not finding the diamond lead into the alleged 26-27 balanced. I did have to guess between the club-spade squeeze and the spade-diamond squeeze, but got that right!