Yesterday's bulletin contained an article about a sparkling play in 3NT of one of the Danish player. In reply to that the German Open team reports that not only one of their players made 3NT as well but also went for a chance twice as good as his Danish colleague:

Board 7. Dealer South. Game All ª A Q J 10 © A Q 8 6 ¨ K 8 4 § 8 2 ª 9 7 4 2 ª K 6 5 © 10 7 5 4 2 © K ¨ 10 9 ¨ A Q J 3 2 § 4 3 § J 7 6 5 ª 8 3 © J 9 3 ¨ 7 6 5 § A K Q 10 9 West North East South Splettstoesser Hausler 1§(1) 1¨(2) 2§(3) Pass 2¨(4) Pass 2ª(5) Pass 2NT(6) Pass 3§(7) Pass 3NT All Pass (1) Precision (2) Good hand with diamonds or bad hand with hearts (3) Clubs, 8+ (4) Relay (5) 5332 (6) Do you have a small doubleton? (7) I may have, but I have real good clubs

When East led ¨J, Splettstoesser ducked it, to find out if East held five or six diamonds. East continued with a small one to the 10 and king, and declarer was hoping for the same line as explained yesterday. Five clubs, one diamond, two aces and a throw-in in diamonds would bring home the bacon.

Splettstoesser cashed §AKQ, but when West showed out on the third round, he did not discard a spade, but the useless diamond. He would have been able now to test both major kings to come down singleton. Either the spade or the heart suit would have given him three additional tricks to score up his game. Flexibility was the real subject this hand was all about. Declarer had to let go the diamond as soon as it became obvious, that it needed any stiff king instead of a throw-in. Splettstoesser started with a heart to the ace as well, but could have cashed the ªA afterwards, if hearts would not have given him all the tricks he needed. Nine tricks made and a bunch of IMPs for Germany