Tom Drijver’s tournament held on 19 February: Video replay and deal analysis

Have you played the Tom Drijver Ambassador’s tournament held on February? Whether you have played it or not, watch a video replay of his tournament then enjoy Tom’s tips to improve your level!

Replay of the Tom Drijver’s tournament held on 19 February

Bidding on the edge demands impeccable dummy play

You are sitting South in a tournament scored by MPs.

Meaning of the bids:

• 2♦️ Any game-forcing hand
• 4♣ A club control (Ace, King, singleton or void)
• 5♦️ 3 key cards
• 6♣ 1 King (as well as the King of Spades)

Please think for yourself what you would bid before reading on.

1. 6S as 12 tricks are guaranteed with chances for an overtrick
2. 6NT, hoping to score the extra 10 points, all-important in a MP tournament
3. 7S, hoping for a favourable distribution

I learned from the bidding that my partner has the following cards:

• 5♦️ 3 key cards: K5, A♥, A♣.
• 6♣ 1 king, other than the King of Spades, K♦️

So let’s count tricks: 6 spades, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs, giving you a total of 12 tricks.

Therefore I could bid 6NT for a decent result. I decided to take a risk however. If my partner has a doubleton either in Hearts or Diamonds, I can ruff in the dummy for the 13th trick.

When I would have bid with Bas Drijver I could bid 6D as a big slam try. But with Argine, that’s not a possibility yet. Interesting because my partner is aware that I know all his picture cards and deciding between 6D and 7D depends on the distribution. With 4-3-3-3, 6S would be the final destination.

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Against 7♠ West leads a low diamond.

Please think for yourself which card you would play before reading on.

As expected, 6 spades, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs make a total of 12 tricks. Obviously, I need to find the 13th trick. Hopefully, a squeeze will do the job

Let’s play the King of Diamonds, cash the King of Clubs and play a spade to the King. Ruff a club and play all your trumps.

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Discarding a diamond on my last trump might mean trouble for West. After playing spades, I cashed the King of Hearts and played a heart towards the dummy. Now West can only hold 3 cards and is unable to guard clubs and diamonds. These 13 tricks would have made me happy with a score of 96%. The bad news is that I played too fast and made 12 tricks.

The whole deal:

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