Covered my ground

Hi all

I have been silent for a couple of days. Last teams match was a disaster, and I have been, well… not myself lately. But let’s not get into that now. Here’s a game where I covered my ground. Maybe it’s plain simple, but I’m still proud of my nine tricks.

All vulnerable René opened 1 , showing either 11-13 balanced, or 10-15 unbalanced with at least a four card suit , or 12-15 any 4441. My RHO overcalled 1 and I jumped to 3NT. West decided to lead the Ten and this is what I found in dummy:

North Dealer

All Vul

North

K4

Q983

QJ96

A95

South

AT87

A5

K873

Q74

The lead ran to my Queen and I started on the , East took the second round and returned another won in dummy. Now I ducked a to West and he returned a , but it was too little too late. I took the trick with the King and cashed the Ace of , East discarding a . Now I played the 4 from dummy and East split his honors. I ducked, completing the placing. Now East, stripped from all his exits, had to play either a in my fork or a away from his King: nine tricks. I estimated East having the King, while he had shown a crummy suit and nothing but the Ace.

At the other table the defence started with a but the defence didn’t keep eye on the ball and declarer got home too. Here’s the complete layout:

North Dealer

All Vul

North

K4

Q983

QJ96

A95

East

QJ953

KT6

AT4

62

West

62

J742

52

KJT83

South

AT87

A5

K873

Q74