Bridge of AngST

We won the 1st round match of the Gold Cup on Saturday, by a margin of just 17 imps….This was largely due to my inept defending.

Partner leads the 8 of clubs after bidding goes 1H-2D-2H-3C-3NT. Dummy’s clubs are QJT76 and you hold K954. What do you play on the first trick after declarer plays an honour from dummy?

You hold 9874 in a side suit in 4H. Declarer leads the suit from dummy and partner rises with the Ace. Which card do you play to show standard count? (You are in a situation where you have to tell partner which winners are cashing before declarer discards his losers on an established suit.)

Again you are in 3NT. You hold Jxx, partner leads the spade 2 (playing 4th best leads) and declarer holds up his ace until the 3rd round. Declarer cashes a winner in dummy and leads a diamond from xxx. You hold AKxx in diamonds. Your play?

Believe it or not I got all 3 wrong.

Thankfully, my declarer play was not too bad…or was it? What would be the optimal line to play this hand?
xx
QJxx
Jx
AQ98x

Kxx
Ax
AKT9x
Jxx

After an auction which went 1NT(15-17)-2C-2D-3NT, opponent leads the spade 5, which goes to the T and K. Your play now?

I am not convinced the best line was found at the table: club to the Q, J of D to the A on which RHO plays the 8, now club to K and A, and then a diamond back, which RHO plays the 2. I now go into the tank and produce the K which drops the offside doubleton Q! My reasoning now was that I can only make the contract if the Q doubleton drops offside so I played for it. 10 tricks and 13 imps in. Darren suggested I could have played the Q of hearts first to tempt a cover.

Well, at least this meant our car trip to Bessingham and back wasn’t futile.