tough hand revisited

by Brian Senior

Board 17. Dealer North. None Vul.
	♠ A ♥ A 2 ♦ A J 7 4 2 ♣ A K J 6 3
♠ J 8 ♥ K 10 7 6 5 4 ♦ Q 10 ♣ 9 5 4		♠ K 10 7 6 5 ♥ Q ♦ 9 6 5 ♣ 10 8 7 2
	♠ Q 9 4 3 2 ♥ J 9 8 3 ♦ K 8 3 ♣ Q

Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell was one of the pairings to reach 6♦ in USA 2’s BB match against Argentina.

East, Pablo Lambardi, led his singleton heart and, of course, Meckstroth won with the ace. He led a diamond to the king and Luis Palazzo dropped the queen!

Meckstroth took the diamond at face value, meaning that Lambardi had a sure diamond trick, having begun with ♦10 9 6 5. If that was the case, the slam could still be made if declarer could avoid a heart loser by throwing all three hearts from dummy on declarer’s winning clubs, then ruff the ♥2.

One possibility, which would have succeeded as the deception would have been revealed, would have been to unblock the ♣Q then cross to hand with a diamond to play winning clubs. However, that line would fail when East held only three clubs with the four diamonds. He would ruff the fourth club with the ♦9 and return the ♦10 to draw dummy’s last trump and leave declarer with a heart loser.

Meckstroth instead crossed to hand with the ace of spades after cashing the ♣Q. His idea was that, should East ruff the fourth club and return a trump, there would still be a trump in dummy to ruff the heart (of course, this would also require that East hold a second heart).

But see what happened on the actual layout. All dummy’s hearts duly went away on the clubs but Palazzo ruffed the fourth club with his surprise trump. Now he played a heart and Lambardi could ruff in front of dummy with the nine of diamonds - down one and a rich reward for the falsecard!