A Show-In

It is fun to watch a good player like Giorgin Duboin play a hand.  On this deal from one of the daily “Jimmy Cayne” matches he was declarer in four hearts.  East-West was vulnerable and West was dealer.  Duboin was North partnering Cayne who was sitting South

 

Duboin ♠ 3 ♥ AK1010962 ♦ QJ  ♣ AKJ3

  

West	Duboin	East	Cayne
Pass	1♥	1♠	2♥
Pass	3♣	4♦	4♥
All pass

West passed and Duboin opened one heart.  East bid spades and diamonds and Duboin ended in the heart game after Cayne raised hearts.

 

North ♠ 3  ♥ AK10962  ♦ QJ  ♣ AKJ3

South ♠ J984  ♥ Q73  ♦ A985  ♣ 97

The opening lead was a ♠ K and a small spade was continued to the ♠ Q and a ruff.

Duboin cashed the top heart and the top club and crossed to dummy on the ♥ Q.  East showed out discarding a small spade.  Duboin successfully finesses the ♣ J as East showed out throwing a diamond.  As my husband Ray is fond of saying, “I am beginning to get a count of this hand!”  Duboin then cashed the ♣ K and ruffed a club, ruffed a spade West discarding a club and played trump to arrive at this three card ending

 

North ♠ –  ♥ 10  ♦ QJ  ♣ –

South ♠ J  ♥ –  ♦ A9 ♣  –

When he played the last trump East is squeezed in spades and hearts.  If he throws the ♠ A then dummy’s ♠ J will be high so he must come down to a stiff diamond and declarer has a show-in squeeze.  He can throw the ♦J from dummy and if East plays a low diamond then declarer plays the top diamond since he knows that East cannot hold the ♦ K.  While this showed good technique on this hand it only matters in the rare case that the diamond were divided 6-1 and West started with the singleton ♦K, a quite unlikely circumstance after East’s stong bidding vulnerable.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 3   ♥ AK10962  ♦ QJ  ♣ AKJ3
West ♠ Q5  ♥ J54  ♦ 4  ♣ Q1086542		East ♠ AK10762  ♥ 8  ♦ K107632  ♣ –
	South ♠ J985  ♥ Q73  ♦ A985  ♣ 97

 

But at it turned out this deal was not just about an overtrick.  At the other table the auction was a lot more exciting.  North took quite an aggressive position in the bidding after his partner raised hearts.  The bidding suggested that even if his partner had meagre high cards, they were the rigth ones and North-South ended in the heart slam.

 

West	North	East	South
Pass	1♥	1♠	2♥
Pass	3♠	4♦	DBL
4♠	4NT	Pass	5♣
Pass	6♥	All pass

Here East, Marco Catellani, of Monaco led the ♠ 2.  When his partner won the ♠ Q it was obvious that the ♠ 2 was asking for a club back for East to ruff for a gain of 11 imps for the Cayne team