This hand contains graphic scenes of borderline insanity, mental deficiency, memory loss and cranial incapacity.  Viewer discretion is advised.

This is my 2nd hatchet job from the 40 board set with Jeff mentioned in yesterday's blog.

962 / Q97 / KQT62 / AK

1st seat all white

I usually upgrade this hand, but I didn't like half my values in my short suit and decided not to for a change.  I opened 1 Diamond.

LHO bid 1 Heart, Jeff Doubled, Righty passed, I figured 1NT was less flawed than 2 Diamonds, Jeff raised me to 3.

Lefty led (Surprise!) the Ten of Clubs.

AKQ7 / KJ62 / 98 / 543

962 / Q97 / KQT62 / AK

This is a deceptively tricky little hand.  If I had taken a sensible line and gone down when a different line would have made, I'd have been annoyed, but spared the dreadful feeling that comes from a true butchery.

If Clubs are 4-4 you can score 3 Spades, 2 Hearts, 1 Diamond and 2 Clubs without any problem.  That leaves 3-3 Spades (or conceivably JT doubleton if you manage your entries well,) a favorable read in the Heart suit (start with the Queen and then run the 9 looks close to 100%,) or a favorable Diamond position (most likely J onside) for the 9th trick.

If Clubs are 5-3, however, you need to find 4 tricks to go with your 5 top tricks right away.  Diamonds look like a better candidate for that than Hearts, but if Spades are 3-3, Hearts will provide enough tricks as well.

At some point my router ran out of bandwidth and I just started playing cards.

I won the first Club (RHO followed with the 7) with the Ace (the King is more deceptive and should have been an automatic play.)  Then a Heart to the Jack held.  A Diamond to the King lost to the Ace.  A 2nd Club went to the Jack and my Ace (perforce.)  I led the 9 of Hearts and LHO followed low.

AKQ7 / K62 / 9 / 5

962 / Q9 / QT62 / -

Now the hand's pretty simple.  I should duck this in Dummy (allowing the 9 to win, assuming LHO started with 5 Hearts) and test Spades.  If they're 3-3 I have 9 tricks (4 Spades, 2 Hearts, 1 Diamond, 2 Clubs.)  If they're not 3-3 I have to decide between the Diamond hook and throwing LHO in with a 3rd round of Hearts.

I thought that covering the 9 from AT8 was so automatic that I played the King on this trick and RHO sluffed the Queen of Clubs.  That should have been a huge warning flag, but I continued with 3 rounds of Spades and when Lefty showed out on the 3rd round, I threw him in with a Heart so that he'd lead a Diamond into my QT after cashing his Clubs and Hearts.

Well, he cashed his Clubs and Hearts.  There were no tricks left after he was finished.

-100 was an 11 IMP swing (lose 3 and change vs win 7 and change.)  And yes, the hand is always down if RHO unblocks Clubs at trick 1.

 

LHO

 

85 / AT854 / A / T9862

RHO

JT43 / 3 / J7543 / QJ7