Sanne and I have rescheduled our trip to The Netherlands. Starting Christmas we’ll be spending about three weeks visiting friends and family, and hopefully I can squeeze in some bridge as well. Even after what happened in the story below.
Playing pairs in Piedmont November 30th.
North
987432
J94
AT5
K
South
AQJ5
A6
843
AT72
West
North
East
South
1NT
pass
2 
pass
3 
1
1pass
4
a.p.
My first problem was assessing the value of the South hand after my partner suprised me with his transfer. I was holding lots of nice Aces and a likely valuable doubleton, but the Queen-Jack of
seemed like overkill, so I sold it as a minimum. Geoff raised me to game.When dummy came down I saw that the contract was healthy and sane, so I assumed most players would find this game. Ten tricks are easy on the King of
lead. Take the Ace, unblock the 
King, cross to the Ace and discard a on the Ace. Losing just a trump, a and one . So I was looking for an overtrick. There is one available in hooking the
King, but on the lead I don’t want to endanger the contract. So I won the lead with the Ace, unblocked the King, crossed to the Ace of and played two rounds of pitching all from dummy. East is on lead now and cashes the Queen of . “Sure buddy, I’m going to finesse against your King of ”, I smile to myself.North
987432
J
-
-
South
AQJ5
-
84
T
East surprises me with an unexpected fourth round of
. I play my Ten and West submerges for nearly two minutes before firing his Ten of torpedo. Yikes! I didn’t anticipate that.I ruff the
return in dummy and now I’m facing the music. Take the trump finesse or go for the drop? Suddenly I wish I had taken the solid plan for ten tricks. Finally I decide to go for the drop, taking West’s long, long pause into account. Defeat.South Dealer
EW Vul
North
987432
J94
AT5
K
West
T
K752
KQJ72
984
East
K6
QT83
96
QJ653
South
AQJ5
A6
843
AT72
. Only +140′s and +170′s on the travelling score sheet. Sometimes I really hate playing pairs.
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