Friday 11 January 2013

What's in a name?

It was Round 1 of the Phoenix Teams of Four last night. Anyway, you're probably wondering what leads me to quote Juliet. It was this hand:

J9
A10xx
KJ98x
Ax

KQxxx
Q9x
A
KQxx

4 Spades by the bottom hand, Jack of Hearts led.
I opened 1 Spade, Lessurl bid 2 Diamonds, I bid 3 Clubs, and Lessurl said 3 Hearts. I think most people would have said 3NT at this point, but that's by-the-by. My RHO doubled for a heart lead, which I passed round to Lessurl, who bid 3 Spades. Since I'd forced Game, I played in 4.

This was not my finest hour I know, but I got away with it so I have a question. I play the Ace of Hearts (I am worried about RHO winning with the King and giving LHO a ruff), and now play up to the Ace of Diamonds, back to the Ace of Clubs and now the King of Diamonds, pitching the Queen. I now play a small heart from table, and RHO does not play the King, as he expects me to ruff, and playing the King sets up the ten. My 9 wins the trick. Although it seems that if I was willing to play for a second heart trick, I might as well have let trick 1 run, thus gaining three, my view was that LHO might have 2 but won't have three hearts - if RHO has the Ace of spades he could still give his partner a ruff. I could afford that when RHO isn't making his King.

The rest of the play is immaterial to my question; I went on to make 11 tricks. My question is: What is the name for this type of play? Regular readers (if such a thing exists) will recall that I made a similar play in the Central District Congress. There, it gained us a top; last night it got us +2 IMPs instead of +1 if I'd made it, or minus a lot if I'd failed to make. There is surely a proper name for it, but I can't find it.

Just to wrap up (that's right, I am only doing a short post), the play continued a small spade to Ace from LHO, a club switch with a ruff from RHO (LHO had 6), and a heart return. I ruffed with the Queen, played a small spade to the Jack (both following) and ruffed a diamond with a small trump. The King of spades drew the last trump, and hand was good.

The Phoenix Teams of Four is the prestigious event of the club. The format is double-elimination Knock-Out, with 16 board matches. We won our first match (which gave us the above board) by 32 IMPs, and disappointingly lost the second by 9 after mistakes all round. We still have one life, however, the same amount of lives as the favourites, so we shall have to aim for the Semi-Finals and take it from there.

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