Santa Clara Firecracker sectional

Poor neglected blog.

Had some interesting hands today in the KO/swiss (knocked out in one round).



The auction and play are as listed. At trick 2, I flew ace and led another spade.

Here's a declarer play problem.



6D by north, lead is the CQ.

Casual game 4/20

You open 2N with AKJx AKJ ATx Jxx, passed out.

LHO leads a small diamond, you see

xxxx xxx KJx xxx

AKJx AKJ ATx Jxx

Right or wrong, you put in the J and it holds, RHO showing even count. If you assume clubs are 2-5 and that they will shift to it when they get in, how do you play?

2/20 Burlingame GNT-C Qualifier

I read Kantar's Take All Your Chances at Bridge book just a few days before the GNT, and this hand felt something that could have come from it.



So we have to deal with a club loser and a diamond loser. The first idea is that you should play a low club to the queen. If the CK is onside, the hand is already over.

Assuming that loses, you can try to ruff out the CJ. If it comes down, you have a club to pitch a diamond.

If NONE of that works, you're down to the diamond finesse. You tried everything!

At the table, when I finessed the club, RHO actually won the CK and led back the DJ. I felt that LHO had the CJ (LHO hitched when I played a club up), and the DJ looked so weird that I figured LHO had the DK as well, so I ran a squeeze instead. Both cards are onside though.

If RHO comes back a small diamond, then you have to abandon trying to drop the CJ and just go for the 50-50 diamond finesse.