Bulletin number 9 of the 2019 World Bridge Championships carried an announcement about IPBA awards for play in online events. Incredibly, a candidate deal was dealt in a Robot tournament on Wednesday night – and the declarer was in Wuhan! Simon Stocken, eager to get his hands (metaphorically speaking) on some cards, had invested US$1.35 to play in an ACBL Robot tournament when this hand appeared on the screen:
This is the deal in question:
Simon (no mean Poker player) was holding the South cards and decided to go ‘all in’ by bidding 7NT. He knew that partner held the [S]KQ and the [D]A, but absent any side kings, must have a little more and if that was in diamonds there would probably be a play for all the tricks.
West led the [H]10 and dummy was a little disappointing:
Simon won with the [H]A and cashed five rounds of spades to reach this position:
With a nod to Vienna, he cashed the [H]K and followed it with the [D]K. So far West, who had turned up with a singleton [S]J had pitched a diamond, a heart and two clubs. East, who had three spades, had parted with two clubs and a heart and now discarded a second heart.
At this point, these cards remained:
When Simon cashed the last spade, West had to part with a club and the now redundant [D]8 went from dummy. East could happily part with a club, and then threw a heart when a diamond went to the jack. However, when Simon played the [D]A from dummy, East became the second victim of the non-simultaneous double squeeze. He had to throw a club and declarer played a club to the ace, felling the outstanding honours and promoting the [C]J to glory.
