A Defensive Coup

Blizzards cannot stop 8-NT. Last Friday, while the Northeast was being buried with snow, three of us hunkered down 8-NTers joined with Tomomi (in what I assume was a vastly warmer and less snowy California) to play a few hands. Here is a terrific success for the defense.




I'll show the whole hand right from the start so you can see the whole picture.

 

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Tomomi started with a normal 1H bid.  Oliver bid 2H, a bid called "Michaels" which shows (in this case) 5 spades and a 5 card minor.  Jonathan doubled.  Now it was up to me.  If my partner happens to have clubs, we have a massive club fit.  Far more likely however is for partner to have diamonds.  I opted for 2S, hoping to buy the contract there.  It went pass, pass and another double from Jonathan.  This is likely a reopening double, a variant of the takeout double.  Certainly he has support for the minors, and doesn't have a great defensive hand.  I passed, and next up was Tomomi to take out Jonathan's double.

Except she didn't.  She converted the double to penalty.  Everybody passed, and Tomomi tabled the KH, and Jonathan dropped the QH.  Then came another heart (I declined to ruff, discarding a club, and Zed did ruff).  Then a diamond.   Now I proceeded to try a cross ruff to try to win my trumps separately.  I led the AC, and led a club to ruff in dummy.  Now it was Tomomi's turn to decline to ruff.  Rather she discarded her last diamond.  Though I didn't know it, my cross-ruff was dead in the water.  In fact, I had prepared the way for a potential cross ruff for my opponents in hearts and diamonds, with them over-ruffing me anytime I chose to ruff in myself, and simply discarding if I opted not to ruff.  My trumps were powerless, and after the dust settled, I was down 3 for -800 points.

Perhaps I should have chosen a different line, but that should not obscure the excellent defense from my ruthless opponents.  We tried to compete, got a bit unlucky with no fit, and they pounced.  They showed their values and their lack of fit, doubled us and made us pay.  Well done.

We'll get you next time.