Ascot Bridge Club

A partner of mine and I were playing teams one evening when I picked up the following hand as South:

S    A x x

H    K J 10 x x

D    J

C    A x

West was dealer and opened 1 Spade

Partner over-called 2 hearts and I raised to 4 to end the bidding

East led the 8 of clubs and declarer sees the following (hands rotated for convenience)

Declarer                                        Dummy

S    x x x                              S    A x x

H    A Q x x x x                    H    K J 10 x x

D    K Q x                            D    J x

C    Q                                  C    A x x

Before reading on decide how you would play the hand at a) Teams and b) Pairs

If the king of clubs is right you can make eleven easy tricks

If the king of clubs is wrong.......

We were playing Teams and this is what happened:

Partner played low and West played the king of clubs.

He then led a low spade, trumped by East!

East followed his partners signal and returned a diamond, won by West's Ace.

West led another spade, again trumped by East!

Result, 4 Hearts minus 1 for a large swing!

Now, admittedly it was unlucky to find West with all 7 spades and East with both trumps but the play is surely to play the ace of clubs on the first trick and then draw trumps. 11 tricks are available losing just a diamond and a spade.

To play East for the king of clubs when a) West has most, if not all the points and b) is leading from what looks like top of nothing is more than a little greedy don't you think?

In pairs you might play low thinking you had little to lose and a small chance of gaining - but in teams????

Suffice it to say that it wasn't one of our more glorious evenings with me taking my fair share of the blame...........................