Cavendish Teams Session 2 Round 6

Mahaffey-Onstein

Board 22

This is not the deal you would expect in the newspapers. Yet it featured a nice safety play from Muller.

Both Souths led the spade eight which the declarers took in dummy. Pszczola cashed two high diamonds in hand and played a club to the king. North won and led a heart. South took the jack with the queen and played a heart back North winning with the ace. 10 tricks, nothing special.

Muller played better. He led a diamond to the nine for nine sure tricks: 4-4 in the long suits and one club. For example on a spade return he wins in dummy, unblocks the diamonds and plays a club up. His safety play wasn’t punished as South played a heart and North surprisingly contributed the ten instead of the ace.

Pszcola could have gone down easily with jack-ten fourth or fifth in the North hand.