Playing at a table of fine players, I made the following unusual play. Everyone else gave me strange looks at the end of the hand, so perhaps I have misanalyzed the situation. See what you think.
I held:
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Well, I told you they were fine players. Even though the take-out doubler didn't get the major-suit response he was hoping for, he didn't dig a hole for himself by bidding 3 Hearts or 3 NT. Declarer wins the opening lead in dummy, and after some consideration, plays a second club. I signal in spades as my partner wins the trick and returns a spade through dummy. Declarer wins the ace and makes the odd play of a low heart off dummy to her jack, which forces my partner's ace. He plays a second spade to me, and I try a third spade, which declarer ruffs with the 8, partner discarding. Now declarer leads her third club, ruffing high on the table in the following position: |
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When declarer ruffs her losing club in dummy high with the king, what should I discard? If I pitch my spade, dummy's ten is high; declarer can then pick up trumps by finessing against my ten, a marked finesse as my partner couldn't overruff her on the third round of spades we played earlier. If I pitch a heart, declarer will pick up trumps as before and drop my now unguarded queen of hearts; I must have that card as my partner pre-empted and has already shown up with the K-Q of clubs and the A of hearts. So by process of elimination, I discard a trump, underruffing the K of diamonds! I suppose I could have predicted my partner's next comment, which I still find humorous to this day: "Uh, what's trumps again?" The point is that by discarding a trump, I now maintain both my major suit guards. Since I discard after dummy, I can not be squeezed if declarer runs out all her trumps. In the endgame, I simply pitch whichever major declarer discards from dummy. It only prevents an overtrick but it felt great -- a play you only make maybe once in a lifetime. Here's the whole hand: |
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