Opening Lead: CQ
Bridge Today is a bi-monthly magazine edited by Matthew Granovetter of Israel. In the July/August, 1995 edition, Granovetter reviewed some of the hands from the 1995 European Pairs Championships which were held earlier this year in Rome, Italy. The focus of his review is the belief that the top level European players are much more aggressive bidders than their American counterparts. To quote Granovetter, "They overcall lighter and slip in and out of the auction like my son's soapy rubber duck in the bath tub. When they get caught, they go for a huge number, but they so rarely do get caught."
Granovetter offers many hands to support his thesis, and this is one of the more bizarre. I will paraphrase his description of the auction. North opened one diamond and South responded one heart. OK, so he took a chance. North rebid two no trump. Normally with seventeen points you don't do that. Perhaps North gave himself credit for his two tens. South's three club bid is a "checkback" asking North if he holds either three hearts or four spades. This is very optimistic, but he does have four spades. North's three heart bid promised three hearts. Any reasonable player would stop at this point, but South advanced the bidding to four hearts.
Normally, bidding of this sort is punished in short order. This was not to be the case. West opened the queen of clubs. Declarer won the ace while playing the ten from his hand. A low diamond was ducked by East and won by South with the king. The five of clubs was led and the nine finessed in dummy. When this held, the king of clubs became the resting place for the three of diamonds.
The queen of diamonds was led, covered by the ace, and ruffed. A small heart was led and the ten was played from dummy. East did well to duck this trick but declarer did better by following with the king, pinning the queen. East won the ace of hearts and led a spade to the ace. West returned the jack of clubs which promoted East's nine of hearts for the third and last defensive trick, as dummy was high.
Barry Westra and Bauke Muller, both of The Netherlands, sat North and South, respectively. While I would normally be reluctant to reveal the names of the players involved in the auction that led to the above contract, they deserve full credit for bidding and making this vulnerable game.
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