The hands in the qualifying are more entertaining and exciting. And you can
also see that the field strength is not as good.
This is the 2nd qualifying, we were still sitting EW, and I was East
throughout. Fred west. The score was 4-section cross, so top is 51. We were
pair 10, the unseeded pair.
Round 1.
Board 21. NS vul, Dealer N.
5
QJ98
AJ54
AK97
JT86 KQ7
7432 KT
Q96 KT3
43 JT865
A9432
A65
872
Q2
N E S W
1D P 1S P
1N P P P
North chose to rebid 1N with 15 count and singleton S, and South didn't even
launch into new minor forcing, rather surprisingly. As a result, they did not
get too high.
Against 1NT, I led the CJ and dummy's Q won, when Fred gave me count, the
situation was clear. Declarer didn't want to use his entries back to hand so
he played a H to his Q and my K.
I switched to SK, and when that held, continue with the Q, and that won too.
Declarer pitched two D. Now I can't play another S else the declarer could
play another S to set up the suit for 9th trick. So I switched to a H to knock
out the entry first. Dummy's A won. Declarer cashed the SA and two more rounds
of H followed, and I pitched a D and a C. This was the ending
-
-
AJ
AK9
J -
- -
Q96 KT
3 T86
94
-
87
2
Declarer now cashed the DA, and I had enough information to throw the K to
avoid the endplay. A hard earned -120 but only 29.5/51 as the stake was not
high enough when EW stayed low with 25 pts between them.

Board 22. EW vul, Dealer E.
QJ96
82
AQJ3
873
- T872
A64 KQJ53
9872 K
QT9542 AK6
AK543
T97
T654
J
N E S W
1H 1S 2S
3S 4C 4S 5H
P P P
After 3S bid I could be sure Fred's short in S. My C bid tried to point where
my strength was in case we were defending, but should be natural too.
Unfortunately I've tried that one time too often as Fred had seen me bidding
my second suit AK tight in the afternoon already (we won that board... but
this is the price you pay for psych'ing). Fred didn't like his 3card trump and
signed off, although it would probably be harmless to try with 5C -- but that
may have the effect of talking oppo into saving 6S, which only goes 2 off with
an inspired guess in D.
South led the SA and dummy ruffed. Now I was at a cross road to determine
whether to make 7 or 6. If trump was 3-2 or C2-2 then I could ruff one more S
for 13 tricks but I can't combine the two. After something that looked like an
eternity I decided I'll just take the profit as they must have a cheap S save
despite the 4-0 break. +680 and a surprising 33/51 despite missing the cold
slam. Good field protection as more people sold with NS cards than selling out
to heart game.