2008 IBPA Brazilian Junior Deal of the Year

The winner of this award is Rosaline Barendreft of the Netherlands and the Journalist, Max Rebattu.  I have translated this for you from the original Dutch.  Well actually Lex deGroot translated it.  Thanks Lex. 

This deal took place at the White House Junior International is a major junior tournament.  This year’s event included 24 teams of which four were Dutch.  You are South and you have this hand not vulnerable aginst vulnerable:

Rosaline

♠ KJ9

♥ A75

◊ J865

♣ QJ7

You open 1NT which I am guessing was 11-14 or something like that.  Partner bids Stayman and RHO bids 2♠.  You pass and your partner bids 2NT.   No red blooded junior passes an invitation but if you need excuse you could upgrade your spades.  (You can also ignore being 4-3-3-3 and have a fairly quacky collection).  You get the ♣2 lead (I am guessing again but I think this is attitude) and partner puts down a rather good hand for their bid.

Partner

♠ A743

♥ QJ

◊ KQ72

♣ 1093

 

Rosaline

♠ KJ9

♥ A75

◊ J865

♣ QJ7

Unfortuantely for North a double of 2♠ was penalty, hence the 2NT bid.  East wins the ♣A and switches to the  ♥10.  You duck and West wins the ♥K.  West returns a small heart to dummy’s ♥J.  You have a lot of work to do.  You might be able to get three diamond tricks, a club two hearts and three or four spades if things behave and you can handle the communication.  While you are in dummy you play a spade to the ♠9.  You are not surprised when West shows out throwing a club.  It looks like East started with six spades, two or three hearts, a singleton club and three or four diamonds.  You now play a diamond to the ◊K which is wins and you take another spade finesse.   This is the position now:

Partner

♠ A7

♥ —

◊ Q72

♣ 109

 

Rosaline

♠ K

♥ A

◊ J86

♣ QJ

Tricks: N-S: 4 E-W:2

If diamonds break she has nine trick but it is quite likely that East has four of them.  She does need some shape for her vulnerable overcall.  What now?  Rosaline led the  ◊J trying to create some communications to the dummy.  West showed out and East ducked.  At this point we are playing the hand double dummy so let’s look at all the hands.

	Partner
	♠ A7
	♥ —
	◊ Q7
West	♣ 109	East
♠ —		♠ Q1086
♥ 964		♥ —
◊ —		◊ A10
♣ K86	Rosaline	♣
	♠ K
	♥ A
	◊ 86
	♣ QJ

Tricks: N-S: 5 E-W:2

You have seven tricks at this point and you can set up an eighth with a club play.  So you lead the ♣Q.  Do you see where this is heading?  West wins and leads back a round suit, East throwing two spades.  But when you play the ♥A throwing a diamond from dummy,  East is in trouble.  If he throws a diamond the elegant way to make the hand is to cash the ♠K and then lead a diamond, a kind of stepping stone squeeze.  East wins but must play a spade to dummy.  (You can also just duck a diamond since you will win the return in hand and you last diamond will be high).  If he throws a spade you can overtake your  ♠K in dummy and make your ninth trick that way.

Max Rebattu points out that you have quite a nice stepping stone squeeze position if East had won the ◊A when a diamond was originally led to the ◊K in dummy.  I will leave this to you, dear reader, to work out for yourself.

A very nice deal.

Also nominated were:

Bessis (Mark Horton)

Geromboux (Ron Klinger)

Drijver (Kees Tammens)

Braun (Ron Klinger)

Linqvist (Ib Lundby)