Í 4
Ì AKJ6
Ë J984
Ê AKQ5
Í AKQJ103
Ì 93
Ë AQ7
Ê 86
Í 98765
Ì Q854
Ë 62
Ê J2
Since this hand is a lesson in timing, let’s look over the shoulder of David Chechelashvili, who is a former Eastern Europe expert transplanted from Soviet Georgia to the eastern United States in 2000, then to California in 2004.
David received the opening lead of a spade, followed by another high spade. He knew that spades were divided 6-1 from the bidding, and he decided that trumps would have to be divided 3-2, with the third trump on his right, or the hand would be too difficult to handle. Therefore the 10 tricks he needed to be successful would consist of four top clubs and six trump tricks: two with spades ruffed high in dummy, two drawn naturally, and two diamonds ruffed low in hand (obviously after discarding his two small diamonds on the club suit.) Here’s the successful sequence of plays:
Trick 1, won by defense.
Trick 2, high spade ruffed high in dummy.
Tricks 3-4, High trump in dummy and trump queen in hand.
Tricks 5-8, run four club tricks, discarding two diamonds.
Trick 9, ruff a diamond in hand.
Trick 10, ruff a spade with dummy’s last trump.
Trick 11, ruff a diamond with declarer’s last trump.
Tricks 12-13, conceded to defense.
This type of play is called an “elopement play” (so named by Hungarian expert Geza Ottlik in the ‘60s). It’s an amusing coup en passant which requires that the small trumps have to be scored in passing, while the defender with the high trump is required to follow suit. At the other table, I should have recognized the necessity of using this technique, and played along similar lines to David’s play. Alas, I blew the timing and was defeated. Oh well, since we lost the match by more than 60 IMPs, this was not the only decisive hand!
The playoffs for the GNT national finals are set for Las Vegas in July. District 22 fans are hoping that their team will find plays like these to capture the whole enchilada there. And why not? Isn’t Sin City the “with-it” place to go to elope??