SWISS TEAMS DAY TWO The last deal of the second Swiss match caused problems around the room. By and large, the field found themselves unable to cash out successfully on this hand –whatever contract they were defending. Board 16. Dealer West. E/W Vul.   ♠ K 10 7 ♥ J 4 ♦ K 10 3 ♣ K Q J 7 4 ♠ A 9 8 6 5 4 3 2 ♥ 9 ♦ 4 ♣ 10 5 3 ♠ Q J ♥ A K Q 7 5 ♦ 9 8 6 2 ♣ 9 8   ♠ - ♥ 10 8 6 3 2 ♦ A Q J 7 5 ♣ A 6 2 Not every West felt obligated to open at unfavorable vulnerability. When Geoff Wolfarth and Brian Senior held the E/W cards Wolfarth passed as West and Senior did not come in over a weak no-trump. Wolfarth doubled an artificial spade call, eventually allowing Senior to have the pleasure of doubling 4♥, and subsequently 4NT. He led the ♠Q and Wolfarth carefully overtook to shift to a heart, allowing Senior to cash out for down one. In the match where John Holland was North he heard the auction start 3♠ - Pass – 4♠ - double. He elected to bid 5♣ and the defenders cashed two hearts but did not find the diamond ruff. Neither did his teammates against a club contract – but they were defending 6♣ on the same auction, where North had found an ebullient leap to slam. Philippe Cronier as North passed 4♠ doubled on the same auction, the winning action since when the defence cash their three minor suit winners they can simply establish a second trump trick by leading a club, or could survive playing a diamond now. Declarer can ruff and pitch his club on the top hearts, but when he finesses in trumps, North wins and returns a diamond. West ruffs and can unblock trumps, but then cannot get off dummy without promoting a trump for the defence! Even +500 would not have been enough for Cronier though. In the other room after a transfer preempt opening of 3♥x by West Phil King as North played 3NT and East thought he had enough to double. On the lead of a top heart East shifted to a spade – and that was -750! Paul Hackett and Ross Harper bid the N/S cards as follows: West North East South Pass 1♣ 1♥ 2♦ 2♠ 3♦ Pass 5♦ All pass       As you can see, they had at least managed to reach the minor suit game with play. West led his singleton heart and East won and cashed a second heart. Declarer could now ruff the spade shift and trump a heart in dummy for his 11 th trick. Afterwards West claimed that his partner could have set up a force by shifting to a spade at trick two. However, Hackett had his answer ready; there are two ways to make the contract on a spade shift. He could throw a heart away and later arrange to discard his three remaining hearts on dummy’s black-suit winners. Or, more artistically, he could ruff, draw trumps, then run clubs and come down to a two-card ending in which by leading the ♠K from dummy he could pin the ♠J and force West to concede trick 13 to dummy’s ♠10!

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