Hi all,
Zhao Guoping, aka Zapple, is a
Singapore bridge expert and an interesting bridge theorist, so
I was pleased when he accepted my invitation to play in
Monday's abalucy tournament. We played well throughout but
had the misfortune to have our table opponents achieve some
excellent results, including bidding two unbeatable slams,
against us, and finished 14th of 20 pairs.
Zapple played this hand
beautifully to hold it to down 1, a reasonable result when the
opponents can take 9 or 10 tricks in spades.
Bd: 13
Dlr: North
Vul: Both
I held: West
S 742
H T92
D AK94
C T93
Bidding:
West North
East South
everton Charlie zapple luke wa
1S DBL 2S
DBL PASS 3H PASS
PASS PASS
My double was a responsive double
saying I have the values to compete, but no clearcut bid.
Zapple bid his 5 card heart suit and that ended the auction.
With the heart and club honours
badly placed the contract is doomed. In fact declarer is at
risk of going down 2, losing
a spade, two trumps and three clubs. Zapple played a classic
strip & end play.
The opening lead was a spade to
the ace. North continued the suit & Zapple ruffed. He played
a diamond to dummy to try the heart finesse which lost to the
Q. Another spade was ruffed
with the jack (note the preservation of a dummy entry by
ruffing high).
This was the position now:
North
S QT6
H A
D 5
C Q65
West East (Zapple)
S S
H 92 H K8
D K94 D QJ8
C T93 C K84
South
S
H 75
D T7
C AJ72
Zapple played the trump king to
North's ace. A spade lead would give a ruff and sluff, a club
lead would set up a club trick for declarer, so North switched
to a diamond. But Zapple had a
sure counter. From the bidding and play he had a complete
count of the hand. He drew the last
trump, and ran the diamonds stripping the last cards in that
suit. North discarded all his
spades confirming the count in that suit. Now Zapple ran the
club 10 to South's jack,
endplaying him in clubs for his 8th trick.
The full hand:
Bd: 13
Dlr: North
Vul: Both
North
S AQT986
H A4
D 52
C Q65
West
East
S 742 S K
H T92 H KJ863
D AK94 D QJ83
C T93 C K84
South
S J53
H Q75
D T76
C AJ72
Open Room:
West North East South
everton Charlie zapple luke wa
1S DBL 2S
DBL PASS 3H PASS
PASS PASS
Trick 1: S3 S2 SA SK
Trick 2: S9 H3 SJ S4
Trick 3: D3 D6 DA D2
Trick 4: HT H4 H6 HQ
Trick 5: S5 S7 S8 HJ
Trick 6: HK H5 H2 HA
Trick 7: D5 DQ D7 D4
Trick 8: H8 H7 H9 S6
Trick 9: D9 ST DJ DT
Trick 10: D8 C7 DK SQ
Trick 11: CT C5 C4 CJ
Trick 12: CA C3 C6 C8
Trick 13: C2 C9 CQ CK
8 Tricks Claimed -100.
友情来文
