On March 25th Vickie & I played in the 8PM Speedball Toonimint — lo & behold, first round we drew the MECKs! (Jeff & his son Matt).
Ironically, that very evening we hoped we’d be playing Jeff in the First Final session of the National Mixed Pairs at the Columbus Nationals — on Jeff’s own original stomping ground! But, sadly, our devastating health crisis shattered the hopes and plans of our beloved District 11.
Then came this instant classic:
Matt’s Precision 1♣ opener and Jeff’s + Dbl/3♦ didn’t faze us — I really hold a Perfecto in offensive values, and Vickie is a conservative bidder, especially Vul vs. NV against World Class players! So I couldn’t RESIST the RE-TWIST!!
Jeff started the ♣Q, setting up a winning defense. Vickie quickly won the ♣A, ♥A, ♥ ruff then took a breath.
It looked soo GREAT for us! — only 4 losers, despite our 18 combined HCP! But there was a snag — Jeff threatened to overruff.
Vickie tried a low ♣ off dummy, ruffed with ♦5, overruffed by the ♦6 (a higher ruff would not have helped us).
Jeff sharply played the ♦10 to dummy’s Ace. Now Vickie ducked a ♠ off, but Matt’s ♠9 held! the ♣K through was ruffed ♦J, overruffed ♦Q and that was down 1, -400!
See, they needed 2 overrufs to beat 3♦XX, with Matt holding all the crucial entries.
Could we have thwarted them?? ………….mmmmmm YESSS!
Vickie could have thrown away those 3 hopeless losers (♠ ♥ ♥) BEFORE facing her FIRST overruff! Sluff until you puke! (she had one last chance after her ♣ play at trick 4 – by throwing ♥ ♥ on ♣K – ♣J – that would have forced young Matt to lead his BAD ♣9 instead of his GOOD ♥ or ♠ to beat us)
Alas. -400 lost us -7.8 IMPs. +840 would have gained us +14 IMPs!
The MECKs went on to 1st overall of 300 pairs.
US? …..OUT : With those +22 IMPs, we’re 4th overall.
Just a truly spectacular, counter-intuitive, TRIPLE-AVOIDANCE play away from GLORY!!!
Comments
10 responses to “Battle Royale”
By the system, MiniMeck must had open 2 !D.
Situation will be clearer for NS in this case.
Hi,
You don’t really need the triple discard. Throwing the spade is enough. You can then ruff the next club, which is overruffed, but NS will only make one club, two hearts and a trump trick (or one heart and two trump tricks).
What declarer must prevent is an overruff by N, S getting in hand and a second overruff by N.
Regards
That’s what’s so deceptively counter-intuitive! ANY TIME Vickie gets overruffed ONCE while she still has even 1 remaining loser, West has the ❤️ (S) entry(s) to effect the 2 nd overruff. For example, throw the S on C2 trick 4, 3rd C ruff D9-10, ❤️❤️ now as long as West is on play, 4th C is the Coop-D-Gracie!, voila! There is no remedy but the spectacular TAP (triple avoidance play)
Did you overlook that after the C overruff, east can immediately return to west wth ❤️ – ❤️, then comes the 3rd C to promote the 2nd trumptrick. No, both ❤️s need be sluffed, too!
what if your pd, instead of ruffing a heart had lead a spade
Another way, ruff the club with KD, ruff a H with AD and later give up two trump tricks.
The fact is, as long as Vickie has even 1 hopeless loser left after 1 overruff, the 2 nd overruff cannot be prevented. For example, Vickie ducks a S trick 4, 3rd C gets overruffed, and W now wins ❤️❤️ to play 4th C!! The most interesting is trick 4-5 V can ruff 2nd C with DK, 3rd ❤️ with DA! Later after driving out DQ-10 with her DJ-8, – look closely – West always has time to play another C to promote Jeff’s Dangling Diamond 6 still lurking behind V’s pathetic D7 for the COUP – de – GRACIE , trey bien🤪
Take the A♣︎, lead a ♠︎ right away to break communications. South wins and runs a club. Best to ruff with the 7, but regardless, North overruffs. Best return would be a trump to tease you to run it to your KJ, but that only wins if trump is split 4-0. Take the A♦︎, A♥︎, ruff a heart, return to your hand with a spade ruff, and pull the last trump, surrendering two hearts, the A♠︎ and an overruff.
I must admit defeat 😩 As pointed out twice in the comments, I overlooked the solution! A S exit off dummy immediately at trick 2 vaporizes Meck’s communications, and allows a later ❤️ ruff + a S ruff-to-hand to draw trump! still a great story eh? 😜
Hi Russ,
Nice commentary on a very interesting hand. I miss seeing all of you at the club!