A Finnish Lady Kill’s The Contract

By Ismo Koponen

Sue Backstrom is the first lady to play on the Finnish Open team for years. In their match against Faeroe Islands she found an excellent lead, which saved some important points for her team.

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	ª A Q © Q 9 3 ¨ A K 8 4 2 § K J 8
ª J 9 5 4 © K 8 6 5 2 ¨ 7 5 § 10 2		ª K 7 6 3 2 © A J 7 4 ¨ 3 § Q 9 5
	ª 10 8 © 10 ¨ Q J 10 9 6 § A 7 6 4 3

West	North	East	South
Salomaa		Backstrom
	1¨	Pass	2¨
Pass	3NT	Pass	4¨
Pass	4ª	Pass	5¨
All Pass

You may wonder why Sue didn’t overcall the opening bid but later she explained that, when she is playing with her husband Jari, she should have a very good suit for overcalls and now she is continuing on the same way with her other partners.

Anyway, their opponents bid first 3 NT, but converted it after a cuebid to 5¨ and she had to find an opening lead. Because North had shown strength in spades and no one seemed to have a heart control, she decided to start with a heart from AJxx.

Well, she played the ©7, which was won by the king. Mika Salomaa returned the ª5 and declarer finessed the queen. The ªK won the trick and Sue continued the suit. After winning the ªA, declarer played two rounds of trumps and lost the §Q after an unlucky finesse.

Maybe declarer could have played his contract better. After a heart lead it seems that West is holding the ©AK and, if he had also the ªK, he might have bid. Now North will bring his contract home if he wins the first spade with the ace, ruffs a heart, comes back to his hand with a trump and ruffs another heart. After the second round of trumps he plays the ªQ to the king. Now East is forced to give a ruff and discard or play a club into the king-jack.