Bella Ciao

Hi all,

I’ve attended Rock Werchter for the .. 4th? 5th? 6th? time. Counting festivals is hard, especially if your mom makes you cut off those bracelets you have been diligently collecting as trophies. I’m much better at counting cards and HCP anyway. There was lots of incredible stuff this year .. Franz Ferdinand, Nine Inch Nails, Stonesour, David Byrne, Gorillaz and Pearl Jam to name a few. Earthquake wise I think DJ Marshmello registered on local and not so local tremor sensors. Man! Those were some big beats.

Here’s a massive deal from the Intercity games.

1. 16+
2. 5+
3. Relay
4. 6+ , singlesuited
5. Relay
6. A 6331-distribution
7. Relay
8. 6-3-1-3
9. Relay
10. No Aces
11. Relay
12. No Kings
13. Relay
14. Three Queens
15. Relay
16. Not the Queen in my shortest suit
17. I was going to bid this anyway

Of course during the relay sequence the positive response was a surprise, but the answers to the rest of my questions were getting less and less pretty. I can tell before my LHO makes his lead I’ll be needing five tricks from my suit. I just hoped that because of the lead directing double Kees might have better fitting honours in the other suits .. like a stiff Jack of Diamonds.

West leads a trump and this is what I see:

I win the first in my hand and I cross to dummy with my 7 of (breaking 1-3). Entries are scarce. There’s one thing I know .. West has the King. Dropping the Jack of -trebleton will see me home, but percentage wise that’s less than hooking the Jack. I take a deep breath and hook the Ten of . West following with a small one.

I’m clear not, am I not? I draw the outstanding trump and start my from the top. Oh no .. the suit is not breaking .. East has 5 of them.

I have one last trick up my sleeve, I can execute a squeeze against East. The three-card ending will be Qx and the final trump in dummy and Ax and my last in my hand. On the last trump East will have no recourse. What suit to pick, though? I can achieve this ending in both and . Wait a minute! West was helpful during the bidding to tell me about the whereabouts of the King.

Easy. I pitch all in dummy on my high , cash my Ace (ditching a ) and ruff a to run the rest of the trumps. Leading to this position:

East surrenders when I call for the 9 of . I take all 13.

Full deal:

After analysing this deal at the bar we came up with the best play. If you know that you need 5 tricks from the suit, you first execute a double Vienna coup, and then run your trumps. You still need the Jack of onside, but if a 5-crd suit is accompanied by at least one King, your suit will still come in for 5 tricks. That also means you come home with Jack-doubleton onside. Thanks to Antony for pointing that cute detail out to me.

With regards to the title, don’t be afraid, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be writing. It’s a song from La Casa de Papel I’ve been (binge)watching together with Fabi.