Geoff Hampson found a great play in the defense of yesterday’s deal. His longtime partner, Eric Greco, takes his turn today.
At one table in a regional teams event, South played three no-trump on a fourth-highest diamond eight lead. Declarer knocked out the club king for 630.
At the other table, Greco led a top diamond and, despite East’s discouraging deuce, continued with the diamond seven at trick two, won by declarer’s nine.
Declarer crossed to dummy in spades (East showing an even number) and led the club queen for a finesse. This was ducked in tempo by all. Declarer was now afraid to lay down the club ace (if East had K-x-x, it would be disastrous to let him in for a diamond through), so he continued with dummy’s club jack, passed around to Greco’s now-bare king. Greco continued the good work by shifting to the spade queen. Not only did this pin the jack, but it severed declarer from dummy’s clubs. The club ace was now blocking the suit.
Declarer countered by ducking the spade trick! Had Greco now thoughtlessly continued spades, declarer could have won in dummy and jettisoned the club ace for his contract. However, having done everything right so far, Greco was not going to fall from grace. He accurately shifted to hearts, the final nail in declarer’s coffin.
South went down three, having been held to two clubs, two hearts, a spade and a diamond. By making the right plays in all four suits, Greco had earned 14 international match points for his team.