You Got to Have Heart: The McConnell Cup
This story is about a hand played by the winners of the McConnell Cup, Team China. They were playing a steady if unspectacular team from the Netherlands. The Chinese ladies were not overly aggressive, they played their version of Precision which they clearly knew very well, nothing spectacular but they played well. They made few errors in bidding or card play; and once in a while they did something above and beyond. On Board 6 in the first of four sets they took a page from Zia’s book.
| Dealer:E
Vul: EW |
Arnolds
♠ A1032
♥ AK76 ♦ A9 ♣ 632 |
|
| Lu
♠ Q7654
♥ J2 ♦ 5 ♣ KQ1085 |
 |
Gu
♠ – ♥ Q85 ♦ J10876432 ♣ 94 |
| Vrend
♠ KJ98
♥ 10943 ♦ KQ ♣ AJ7 |
Fu had an eight card diamond suit but it was missing all the top honors and at this vulnerability she decided to keep quiet. This was typical of the Chinese style, they weren’t trying to be active in every auction. As a result Arnolds arrived in 4♥ with no opposition bidding and no clues about their distribution.
| West | North | East | South |
| pass | 1♣ | ||
| pass | 1♥ | pass | 2♥ |
| pass | 2♠ | pass | 3NT |
| pass | 4♥ | all pass |
Gu led the ♦J, dummy’s ♦Q winning. One likely line was that declarer would draw two rounds of trump and then cash the ♦A and then assuming both followed try a club to the ♣J. West would win and then Arnolds could play ace and another club endplaying West into breaking spades. But on this deal when declarer cashed the ♦A East would show out and even without the endplay Arnolds was pretty sure to guess spades.
Arnolds started off with the ♥3 from dummy and Lu did something simple but remarkable. She flew with the ♥J. Arnolds won and reconsidered here plan. She did not draw another trump but made with seemed like a safe play. She laid down the ♦A. Now Lu ruffed it and played the ♣K. Arnolds ducked. When Lu switched to a spade, Chu ruffed and returned a club. Declarer took the ace but still had a club loser for one down.
The combination of the play of the ♥J and the quietness of the auction led to a defeat of the heart game. In the Zimmermann Diamond match Helness and Helgemo defended this board against Gitelman and Moss. Here too Helness did not bid but when Gitelman (North) laid down the ♥A Helgemo played the ♥2. Here he played the top two hearts cashed the ♦A and threw Helness (East) in on a heart. East returned a club and Fred followed the line suggested above putting in the ♣J and so on. Had Helgemo played the ♥J at trick one would Gitelman have got the hand right? We will never know because he was never tested.
Well done China, well earned.
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related
Linda, thanks a lot for posting the deal. But I guess I have to point out the typo of “Fu” and “Chu”. As Chinese surnames are often short and thus easy to confuse, it may be a good idea to spell their full names like “Gu Ling” and “Lu Yan”.
The “likely line” elimination simply doesn’t work. The one who takes the third club can play a minor and the ruff and sluff doesn’t help declarer. Sure, she can play that way but it only helps to guess spades by discovering the distribution.
I am sorry about the names that is what was on BBO. It is true that a minor return will not help declarer that much it may not be trivial for the defense to figure that out (when they have a choice). And any help with figuring out the distribution can make a huge difference anyway. It still seems like proper technique to eliminate the minors.
You would try a club to the jack because it might win. I think the line suggested is the best line and I can’t think of any reason not to play it when hearts break.