6♥ redoubled just made – by two pairs!
by Ace Ventura
Perhaps the last board in the first session of the Mixed-Pairs
Semifinal had the most exciting distribution in the set of 26
boards. Having the following interesting hand, what is your ideas
when partner opens 1♥?
| |
♠ Q 9 7
♥ A
♦ A K 9 7
♣ K 8 6 4 2 |
The scoreboard produced quite a lot of different scores. Let’s
see what happened at one table.
| Board 26. Dealer East. All Vul. |
| |
♠
Q 9 7
♥ A
♦ A K 9 7
♣ K 8 6 4 2 |
♠ A K J 6
5 3
♥ J 6 5 4 2
♦ 5
♣ 10 |
 |
♠
-
♥ K Q 10 9 8 7
♦ 4 2
♣ A J 9 7 3 |
| |
♠
10 8 4 2
♥ 3
♦ Q J 10 8 6 3
♣ Q 5 |
| West |
North |
East |
South |
| De Falco |
Lambardi |
Olivieri |
von Arnim |
| |
|
1♥ |
Pass |
| 2NT |
Dble |
3♣ |
4♠ |
| Pass |
Pass |
5♣ |
Pass |
| 5♥ |
Dble |
All Pass |
|
Italy ’s Dano de Falco started with 2NT game-forcing and
Gabriella Olivieri’s 3♣ showed a minimum
hand with any shortness. De Falco looked a bit surprised when the
tray came with Daniela von Arnim’s bid: 4♠. If West draw trumps against 4♠ it’s likely to see the contract go down six!
An old-fashioned penalty double by de Falco would probably have
done the job since it’s unlikely that South moves to 5♦. In this modern world of
crazy conventions de Falco had to pass, since a double would
strongly have suggested a continuation of the auction. Pass was the
best bid de Falco could produce but Olivieri did not – this time –
have the hand to double and bid 5♣. De
Falco shook his head and corrected to 5♥.
Lambardi thought East/West were on thin ice and doubled.
Von
Arnim led a spade and now the ace of trumps was the only trick that
was left for the defence. 5♥ doubled with
one overtrick was worth 77% for East/West. North/South must have
felt quite satisfied to receive 23%.
At another table West had
higher views:
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
1♥ |
Pass |
| 2NT |
pass |
3♣ |
Pass |
| 4NT |
Pass |
5♠ |
Pass |
| Pass (!) |
Dble |
All Pass |
|
Well, some sunny day East might have the necessary cards, but
this was not the day. West asked for aces but then was in deep
trouble when two aces were missing. He took a chance to find a
spade-fit and passed 5♠. When North
doubled West could reconsider. He knew that only a poor defence
would save him in 6♥ so he instead hoped
that North/South had misjudged the situation. They had not. When the
smoke had cleared declarer was down for; North/South +1100. Do I
need to tell the score was 100% (by a wide margin)…
The Dutch
pair Jet Pasman/Christoffer Niemeijer and the British pair Nevena
Senior/Geoffrey Wolfarth both made 6♥
redoubled on spade leads. What a disappointment, to make a redoubled
contract and not be the only one. |