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In November, players flocked to San Diego —a pleasant site — for the 10-day ACBL Fall Championships. As usual, many experts from outside the U.S. attended. In today’s deal from the Board-a-Match Teams, Italian champion Norberto Bocchi won a board with a good deceptive play.
| Dlr: North | ♠ Q 7 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: All | ♥ Q 3 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ A K J 9 8 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ J 3 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ K 10 5 4 3 | ♠ J 9 | |||||||||||||
| ♥ K 10 8 | ♥ J 9 6 5 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♦ Q 6 5 | ♦ 10 7 | |||||||||||||
| ♣ 10 7 | ♣ Q 9 6 4 | |||||||||||||
| ♠ A 8 6 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ A 7 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ 4 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K 8 5 | ||||||||||||||
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Opening lead — ♠4
Board-a-Match is a demanding format; overtricks can matter. South played at 3NT, and Bocchi, West, led a spade, won by dummy’s queen. Declarer led a club to his ace and returned a diamond … and Bocchi played the queen!
Guess
South had a guess. If the queen was a singleton, he needed to duck in dummy to preserve communication. If South took the ace, king and jack and lost a diamond to East’s 10, he might never reach dummy for the two good diamonds.
South must have been suspicious, but he judged to trust Bocchi’s card: South played low from dummy. He wound up with 10 tricks, plus 630, but in the replay, South took 11 tricks at 3NT against a less testing defense, and Bocchi’s team won the board.
Daily Question
You hold: ♠A 8 6 2 ♥A 7 2 ♦4 3 ♣A K 8 5.
Your partner opens 1♣, you respond 1♦, he bids 1♠ and you try 2♥. The dealer, at your right, opens 1♥. You double, your partner bids 1♠ and the opening bidder rebids 2♥. What do you say?
