The Play is the Thing in This One Notrump

Club competition
't Veld
February 8, 2001

	K 9 5 3 10 5 K Q 7 Q 9 8 5
A 7 4 Q 6 4 3 A 8 2 K 7 3		Q 10 8 2 J 9 8 J 4 J 10 6 4
Lead: 3	J 6 A K 7 2 10 9 6 5 3 A 2

Made 4 —— NS +180 —— NS 2 IMP

After a routine auction I became declarer as south in one notrump and finished with an incredible 10 tricks! Although the defense could have been better, it is never easy defending one notrump. Besides, I believe I played the hand really well and made some good decisions. Well, just watch the play and judge for yourself

West started with a small heart, covered with the ten, jack and ace. A small diamond to the king held the next trick. It did not seem right to exhaust an entry in the south hand for another diamond to the queen. So I decided to return the diamond queen pinning the jack in the east hand

West took her ace and tried her luck with a small club. This was covered by the nine, ten and ace. I returned a small club and west took her king. She returned another club and I took this with the queen, because I figured that east probably had the club jack

Now I already had eight tricks, but I was not satisfied yet. I ran my diamonds discarding two spades from dummy and noticed that east discarded the nine and eight of hearts! That was a pleasant sight and gave me a neat endplay: I played the spade jack and overtook it with the king when west played low. Then I returned a small spade for the now singleton ace in the west hand and claimed the rest! I knew that the last cards in the west hand were the queen and six of hearts and I had kept the king and seven.