Deception Reinforced

Partner and I cooperated on a neat defense on this hand from the club game of June 29.

(Sorry about the layout’s inconsistent designation of position name and vulnerability; West was dummy and NS only were vulnerable.)

West’s pass of 1NT seems odd to me, but this pair is not among the better at our club.

Partner led the ♠J, run to declarer’s ♠Q.

Declarer floated the ♥J, and I made the good, but fairly routine, play of ducking.  A second heart was played by declarer and partner played the ten, covered by the Q and won by my now-stiff ♥K.  Unsure of the pointed suit layout, I cashed the ♦K.  Seeing a discouraging ♦2 from partner, I switched to spades, our side driving out declarer’s other spade stopper.  Declarer now played a club toward the jack and I won the ♣K.  After I have cashed out the spade suit, a club return by me would lead to down two.  However I instead cashed the ♦A for our seventh trick – a play which you might think of as a panic play or you might think of as protecting our position, depending upon how likely you think the possibility that declarer failed to open 1NT on a hand with a balanced 15 count that includes the ♣Q.

Although I doubt his play mattered against the current competition, the play I really like was partner Len Aberbach’s play of the ♥T on the second round of hearts.  Against a more skeptical/aware declarer, Len’s play of the ♥T on the second round of hearts was likely to reinforce the deception initiated by my – much easier – first round duck of the ♥K.

(Alas, +50 was average in our section and yet would have been a tie for top in the other section!)