One half of the winning pair of the Championship Pairs A Final from the 2020 Virtual Summer Meeting, Ben Norton, has provided a write up of a couple of the interesting hands below:
On this hand from the qualifier, North made a pragmatic 3NT response to South's 1D opening. Ankush led the HJ to my king, and I returned a heart, for want of anything better to do. Winning in hand, declarer led out the DJ, followed by the DK to Ankush's ace as I pitched an encouraging club. The hearts were cleared, then declarer took the winning view of running the SQ. North followed up with a finesse of the SJ, then the SA, Ankush throwing the C3 (reverse attitude). Declarer then crossed to the DQ and threw me on lead with a spade, thus forcing me to broach the clubs. This way, declarer would make two tricks from the club suit whenever I had either missing honour, whereas playing ace and another himself would lose out if Ankush held the CK, albeit that was contraindicated by my early discard. When I was put in with the SK, Ankush parted with his heart winner. In the three-card ending, I had to decide whether to exit with a low club, in so doing giving declarer the contract when he had J10x, or try the CK, hoping to force an entry to partner's hand with the CQ. Unable to read the middling C3, I went for the latter, if only because declarer had taken a good view in the play thus far and others might not duplicate this. That was fatal on the layout, gifting declarer an overtrick by playing the suit from the top, but North lost his way and, after taking the CA, finessed the C10, so partner claimed the rest for down one. My attempt at a Deschapelles Coup misfired, but then somehow caused declarer to thumble. Of course, I wouldn't have played the CK if I had KJx remaining. After the hand, Ankush said that maybe he should have shifted to a club to stop me from leading the CK in the ending. That's the sign of a good partner, but it was tricky to see so far ahead. Of course, Ankush couldn't really afford to throw his C2 on the fourth spade, clearing up the signal, else give declarer a third club trick when North held K10x. Board 25 from the final:
This deal was played in the final, and was a misfitting hand. Distributional collections can often prove disappointing when partner doesn't have a fit for you, and so this hand proved. Nine pairs attempted game, eight going down. At our table, Ankush opened 1S and South overcalled 2H. I didn't want to play for penalties at the vulnerability, with such poor heart spots, and besides, we could have a diamond slam. I bid 3D and partner rebid his spades, showing six of them (3H would be available as a temporising call with only five spades and no heart stop). I still didn't like the look of my heart intermediates, knowing that a heart lead to 3NT would likely set up at least four tricks for my RHO straight off the bat. I therefore viewed to raise partner's spades to game. Ankush won the CJ lead in dummy and successfully ran the S10. The DAK followed, North ruffing, and back came a heart. A club return would have been a better shot, for there was no need for North to score heart ruffs with his natural trump tricks. South took the HA and needed to either return a heart, killing the dummy, or revert to clubs to knock out Ankush's king. When a diamond was played, though, declarer was a step ahead. Ankush ruffed and led out top spades, driving out North's SQ. North had to play a club to East's king, and now the play of the last trump squeezed South between the red suits for ten tricks.
August 3, 2020