Success/Failure

2 hands from my pracice session tonight.

1. Partner dealt
1S 2D
3C 3NT
Opening lead was the 2 of spades.

♠ Q753 ♥ Q5 ♦ 86 ♣ KJT8

♠ K ♥ T742 ♦ AQJ54 ♣ A75

I think I played this right, though maybe I overlooked something. I read spades as being 4/3 based on the lead. Win the king, run the club finesse which wins. Yay! Run the spades, discarding 3 diamonds (over my partner's instence to immediately finesse diamonds). Concede a spade.

I now lose 3 hearts, but my 10 is promoted (LHO shows out on the third round). A diamond is returned. No question, I go up with the ace. Cashing the ace of clubs, RHO is now out. Forgetting the ten of hearts is good (because it doesn't matter), club to the jack, King of clubs, 5 of spades. Making.

Partner was very gracious and congratulatory. I think this line is clearly superior to immediately finessing diamonds.

Hand 2:

The bidding was:

West	North	East	South
p	p	1♥	1♠
2♥	p	p	2♠
p	p	3♦	p
3♥	p	p	p

I chose the Ace of clubs to lead.

♠ AJ42 ♥ 865 ♦ 54 ♣ J875
	♠ KT9876 ♥ AJ9 ♦ QJ ♣ A9

Partner threw the 3 of clubs, declarer the 2. So much for that idea.

With ten spades in sight, I tried the ten of clubs. Ace, 5, 3. A diamond came around to my queen. I tried a spade back, but partner had the queen. Ruff, ace of diamonds, 2 of diamonds from declarer.

Now what?

From the bidding, I thought declarer might be 5/5 in the reds. Having shown out on the second round of spades, that meant 2 clubs - and I knew he had the king.

I saw diamond ruffs coming on the board, and I also wondered if partner could really stop diamonds from running. Of course, maybe declarer was 5/4 in reds with a third club....

I think I was at my limit in terms of picturing hands, which is a shame. This is the actual layout.

	♠ ♥ 43 ♦ K7 ♣ QT64
♠ J2 ♥ 865 ♦ ♣ J87		♠ ♥ KQT7 ♦ T92 ♣ K
	♠ K876 ♥ AJ9 ♦ ♣ 9

I ruffed with the 9, cashed the ace, and exited with the jack of hearts. It was no use - declarer won in hand, ruffed the last diamond, and claimed.

I think I'm better to throw the club, something I definitely considered. The main advantage is that declarer is put on the board, and he may err from there. If I concentrate just a little harder, I should see that I can't stop diamonds from being established. (GiB double dummy analysis seems to indicate that the 2 of diamonds lead allows the contract to make.)

My vision needs to be just a little bit better.