My Favorite Hand

When I was once asked for my favorite hand this is what I chose:

I was playing against friends who at one time been considered among the best pairs in New England. Here is the bidding:

S W N E

1C P 1D P

1H P 3C P

3NT P P P

OL – SJ

Dummy came down with –

K42

7

AKQ863

Q64

My hand was AQ42, KJ54, — J10985

 

3C was forcing by our partnership agreement. The opening lead of the spade jack attacked my

only sure communication so I decided to abandon the diamonds to attack other suits. As long as my opponents did not know I was void in them, the hand with four diamonds would surely keep them to prevent to prevent their being run, and I might have be able to endplay him later to gain access to the dummy.

I won the spade king in dummy, and hoping for an accident I called for the queen of clubs. Lo and behold, it went ace on my right and king on my left. After many dirty looks, East led a small heart. Knowing I couldn’t afford to lose this trick because I might get endplayed and have to lead hearts out of my hand I smoothly went up with the king.

It won. I then ran my clubs. West, who had started with J1093 in spades, not knowing I had length in the suit discarded his spades. To protect his hearts and diamonds, On the subsequent run of the spades West discarded hearts . East, seeing his partner discard the queen of hearts, unblocked by throwing the ace of hearts so I made six by taking my twelve tricks which were four spades, four hearts, four clubs and no diamonds!