A Tale of Two Sixes
by Jonathan Mestel
In two hands from the Premier League second division a lowly
6 proved quite crucial.
How would you play 5
by South on
the lead of the 
5 to the 3, 7 and Q?
Declarer entered dummy with 
K and
ran Q. Paul Barden (W) won this and
continued hearts. Declarer drew trumps and eliminated the red
suits to leave North on lead with
Declarer now led the 
9 and finessed
when I covered. Paul exited with the 7
to the 8, J
and A. Declarer cashed his trump, but
Paul won trick 13 with the 6.
I didn't notice at the time, but someone who had seen the
hand-records could have led the 5 in
the diagram instead of the 9...
A better line for 11 tricks is to cash A at trick 2. Then after eliminating the red suits declarer
exits with a trump and the endplay is 100%. Unfortunately, the
contract was actually 4 not 5, so that was only +1IMP.
Not long after, another 6 was significant:
|
|
|
E |
S |
W |
N |
| 1 |
3 |
all |
pass |
|
|
|
The 7 was led to the 10 and East switched to a club giving 10 tricks
as the heart length is marked. Instead, continuing spades would
have led to a trump promotion and one down. It seems to me that
the club switch requires partner to hold something like a
2-0-5-6 shape with two aces, when he'd surely have acted over
3, but perhaps the stiff 6 was a long shot also. After the hand, I
promised partner that in future I'd hold stronger suits for my
3-level jump overcalls (though 5 is
cold). He replied "You mean something like KJ6432?"