One day I found myself sitting against the great American pro Mark Lair (who was playing with a client), and this entertaining deal came up:
| IMP-15 | | Partner | | |
| Board 510 |  - | |
|  A75 | |
| Client |  KQJ94 | Lair |
| J4 |  KQJT2 | AK976532 |
| JT963 | | 2 |
| A876 | Me | - |
| 94 | QT8 | 8765 |
| KQ84 | |
| T532 | |
| A3 | |
Me
Pass
Dbl
Pass
All Pass
|
Client
Pass
Pass
Pass
|
Partner
1(?)
4NT(?)
5
|
Lair
4
Dbl
Dbl
|
Lair led the K, which my partner
ruffed. The contract is cold if North just draws trumps and knocks out
the A. The defense can take at most
one spade and one diamond, since dummy's spade holding acts as a stopper.
But declarer proceeded to draw three rounds of trumps, pitching the T from dummy. He continued with a diamond to the
ten and ace, Lair pitching his heart. With the client on lead, Armageddon loomed:
| | Partner | | |
| - | |
| A75 | |
| Client | KQJ9 | Lair |
| J | T | A976532 |
| JT963 | | - |
| 86 | Me | - |
| - | Q | 8 |
| KQ84 | |
| 532 | |
| - | |
You can see now what happens if West returns a spade. If North ruffs, Lair ruffs the next trick and runs all his spades for down
5! If North refuses to ruff, Lair of course overtakes the J and continues spades to knock out North's last
club. But West returned...a diamond! Lair ruffed, but that was the end of
the defense. Making 5 doubled, 550, was only worth 4.97 IMPs because some
people were making 6. It will be
a while before I see another declarer and defender give and take five
(doubled!) tricks to each other on one board. ("Here, you take them." "No,
no, I insist they're yours." "I can't accept, you take them....")
