6th World Bridge Championships 1982, Biarritz
It’s usually good strategy to prevent your opponents from exchanging information, and that accounts for the way I played this hand from the second session of the Mixed Pairs.
 Q 3 Q J 7 4 2 7 A K Q 10 8 |
||
| A K 8 7 2 A K K 9 5 9 6 3 |
9 5 9 6 A J 10 6 3 2 J 5 4 |
|
| J 10 6 4 10 8 5 3 Q 8 4 7 2 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1* |
2NT** | Dbl | 3 |
| 3 |
Pass | 3NT | All Pass |
(1) Strong hand (2) Clubs and hearts (3) 5-7 high card points
After my partner, Jo Morse, showed her spade suit, I was hard-pressed for a bid. If I had only one of the opponents suits stopped, I probably would have been afraid to bid 3NT, but with both suits unstopped, I didn’t hesitate.
Not surprisingly, I got a heart lead, won by dummy’s ace.
I realized I couldn’t afford to let North signal the club strength, so I led a low diamond from dummy, finessed, and shuddered.
I was going down two if South led a club. But, with little to go on, she led another heart and I didn’t fool around — I just took my nine tricks and ran.
It turned out to be an excellent board — we got almost all the matchpoints. But I sure was sweating it out when South was thinking about what to return after winning her Q.