Barnet Shenkin


Fortune Smiles by Barnet Shenkin prev/next

Should you be unable to get to Philadelphia for the Spring Nationals you should take a look at the acbl web site and access the bulletins there. As well as the results of the tournaments they are jam packed with very interesting stories about the tournament and the personalities playing.

Here is a hand I recently played on acbl on line and is notable for the fact that for once fortune smiled on me.

N ♠8 5
♥K Q 6 3
♦K J 9 5
♣Q 4 2
 
S ♠J 5 2
♥A J 10 4 2
♦A 4
♣A 7 3
WestNorthEastSouth
    
   1NT
Pass 2♣Pass 2♥
Pass 4♥All Pass 

West led the ♠A and continued with the ♠K and another. I ruffed in dummy as East played the ♠Q. It looked as if I would have to rely on either the ♦Q or the ♣Q to be onside but after playing the ♥K and ♥10 East pitched the ♦2. It now seemed likely that unless East had made a tricky false card from five spades that East held nine minor cards. Now the diamond finesse appeared to be wrong. Two top diamonds were cashed and the third ruffed in hand with the ♥J as West discarded a spade. It looked as if West's distribution was 5-3-2-3. After crossing to the Dummy with the ♥Q which in the process drew the last trump the ♦J was led and when East played the Q a club was discarded from hand as West played the ♣9! When East played a club it seemed for a moment that I had gone wrong and the ♣K had been onside all along. Forced to play low from hand fortune smiled when West could not produce the king and I was spared the embarrassment of having to apologise to partner for having gone down in yet another cold contract.

The full hand:

Dlr: North
Vul: All
N ♠8 3
♥K Q 6 3
♦K J 9 5
♣Q 4 2
 
W ♠A K 10 6 4
♥9 8 5
♦8 3
♣10 9 8
 E ♠Q 9 7
♥7
♦Q 10 7 6 2
♣K J 6 5
 S ♠J 5 2
♥A J 10 4 2
♦A 4
♣A 7 3
 

     
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