Hi all
We’ve made it to day 2 in the mini-Spingold. After the first 28 boards we were down by 51 imp and prospects were glum. Oops!, let me correct that, down by 48, because our opponents got a 3 imp “Zero Tolerance”-penalty for being rude to my teammates and the director. So we straightened our backs, started swinging a bit and behold, after three quarters of the match we were down by 13.
I’m on lead after this exchange:
122341. Slam try
2. Cue (first round controls only)
3. Enough
4. No it’s not
I see that everything is breaking nicely for declarer. My holding looks terrible in front of the bidder, so that’s where I started my defence. I led a , trying to scare declarer into a less successful plan. Here’s the full deal, I’ll show you what happened next.
On the lead declarer had two quick losers so he had to play 3 rounds of to pitch his losing . Then when he turned his attention to 
I won the Ace and topped off the defence with a 4th . When my partner ruffed with the Jack in front of declarer my trump holding got stellar promotion. Victory dance!
On any other lead declarer can come home: win the lead in South, set up a trick, then pitch a on the third , and finally ruff out the using dummies trump honors as entries.
This and some magic by our teammates was enough to pull the match with a 2 imp margin. That “Zero Tolerance”-penalty must have tasted so bitter.
I think a trump lead (and a second trump after winning the
Ace) will also defeat 6
.
You’re right KJ, that line works too.
holding I tried something different. Gallery play, heh ;-)
I considered leading a trump, but because I saw the even breaks and a disgusting