Platnick-Diamond defend 3NT against Rodwell

Meckwell reached the same 3NT as in the other room, after a Big club auction with artificial responses. Platnick won the first heart, which declarer has to duck, and found a spade shift, after which declarer can prevail double dummy, but is the only one to give him some trouble.

Please use next button to advance to the play where rodwell advances the 8 of clubs. This was, at double-dummy, a mistake. The correct play was the Ten of clubs, preserving the 8 for a possible later finesse against the J to bring in the suit if N rose Ace. A very difficult defence that beats the contract now is to rise CA because the clubs are blocked (That is, on the next round of clubs, declarer will be allowed to run the Ten, but the Queen in dummy is marooned.) When the C8 to the C9 finessing against the AJ worked, declarer needed to play a second heart, stripping North, and then play a club up, when North can be strip-endplayed to play Diamonds into the tenace. He instead chose to take a diamond finesse, playing South for some outside values. when this lost, Diamond defended most accurately, locking declarer in his hand where there is a loser by finding the only sequence of plays, Club Ace, then a red card (here, a heart). Declarer cashes his diamonds but has to concede a H at the finish for down one, and 12 IMPS to DIAMOND for a tied match.

Zia's 4-3 Diamond Slam

This hand from a Nickell comeback in the finals against Diamond, featured a Zia brilliance. How do you play 6D (the 4-3 fit, these guys usually show 4 diamonds on a 1D opener except with 4432) on the lead of the SJ to the SQ and SA? The lead with a potential builder of a trick in spades may appear inconsequential. There are four variations to the complex play.

Any 4-2 diamonds with 3-3 clubs allows drawing of trump. Will fail here after pulling 3 rounds of trump, if you touch a round of clubs.

If you play for diamonds 3-3, Play CQ and CA and hope these stand up, ruff a third round of clubs high. Will work here

The actual line chosen by Zia was sexy. None of the online commentators found Zia's table line combining chances. He drew trumps finishing in dummy, finding them 33, and played a heart from dummy, planning to put in the Jack. (If the Jack lost, he would have to fall back on clubs 3-3 or club J coming down in 2 rounds.)

When RHO did not split, he put in the Jack, and built a trick in spades by forcing Hampson to split his T9, winning SK, and playing back a spade. He had at this point a Spade, DA, 3C, 12tricks in all

The other variation if Greco split was amazing, You win with the Ace, and play the HJ pitching a spade, Back comes a heart which you win, a spade to the King, DA, and Greco is squeezed on this trick, between clubs and his last heart. What a hand.

Geoff Hampson plays a hand

In the on-going Finals of the USBF, Hampson playing for Diamond held the North cards. In the other room, after the auction by Diamond-Platnick E-W ONE HEART-FOUR HEARTS,Jeff Meckstroth did not reopen in spite of the void in hearts based on his judgement. The opponents were, on the one hand, playing limited Precision style opening bids, and for another, the FOUR HEARTS raise could be tactical (especially if you were against Grue or Cheek or Lall or Bathurst). However, the inferences might have been different, or the hand evaluation a little different here, where Greco doubled for takeout and partner bid FOUR SPADES

Since 4H presented no problem in the play, we would have a double game swing against team Nickell, that rarest of events, if Hampson brought home his contract.

And bring home his contract he did. The play is virtuoso-like. Please play through the first few tricks until the CJ is led from the table. Please make sure you understand the variations at this point with the DQ as re-entry to dummy, the bare King of trump in dummy, and established clubs. In hand are Tx of trump and Axxx of diamonds. In every variation defence with its QJ9 of trump is powerless to stop the elopement/trump-substitute type play. Pushing clubs through is the brutal counter measure to the bad trump break. Gets my vote for the best-played hand.