Singleton black aces
Board 15 of Monday morning’s club game presented some early symmetry followed by a fun end position.
After 1♣-1♠, 2♣, I closed the auction with a jump to 3NT. The ♥4 was led.
I tried the nine from dummy and was happy that it held the trick, retaining two as yet unattacked side entries to dummy’s nice club suit.
Next, I symmetrically unblocked singleton black aces, first in clubs and then in spades. I ran clubs, finding that the suit split 3-3. I had seen a couple of noninformative diamond discards including one by LHO, by the time I had reached this five-card end position.
I tried a diamond to the king. The finesse lost, but since this was the full hand …
… LHO’s one diamond discard had brought her down to AQ tight of diamonds and three major suit cards. She could cash a second diamond but was then forced to allow me to take a second heart finesse. Three hearts, two spades, and six clubs for +460 was a factored tie for top board (9.86 out of 11).