When Australia met USA 1 in round robin 10 of the Bermuda Bowl, Down Under did a fairly good job by winning 20 to 10. Board 26 was of interest. The place to be was 3NT and in spite of 27 HCP in the combined hands certainly not a piece of cake. In fact quite a few declarers went down due to the fact that the double finesse in a side suit - clubs - was off.
Sartaj Hans, member of the Australian open team, received an unfriendly lead but was still successful in bringing the contract home. The way he managed this, certainly qualifies for the Play-of-the-day.
Hans was playing 3NT as West. North led a spade to the King and South returned a spade to Jack, Queen and Ace. By now declarer had eight tricks. From his perspective the club suit should supply the ninth trick. So he played a club to the queen. North won the King and returned another spade (West a club). Hans unblocked the diamonds cashing Ace and King and fell back to clubs. He did well to play the Ace. In this way he took the extra chance of picking up Jack-doubleton. North followed low. Hans intended to continue with a third round of clubs to the Jack in South, the so-called safe hand. Before doing so declarer first cashed his remaining diamonds. From dummy a club and a heart were thrown.
According to the interview at this point Hans was a little bit surprised that North only held a doubleton diamond. Therefore he decided that North might well have the CJ and adjusted his line of play. In fact on the run of the diamonds North was caught in a squeeze. If he wanted to guard his HK he would be forced to get rid of a spade winner. In that case declarer could endplay him with a club. So North bared his HK. That manoeuver did not fool Sartaj Hans. He simply advanced the HQ and even made ten tricks.
It yielded his team only one IMP as at the other table Steve Weinstein made nine tricks on a much more friendly lead in the same contract.
