Showcase

You don't win the datum in a national playoff without getting some deals right yourself. Here Freddan made short work of a game with perfect play.

AKT
J732
-
AKQ943

J52
T964
Q8732
J

After dummy showed 16-19 with 4 hearts and a longer undisclosed minor, South invited and game was reached from the weak side. West led a low ambiguous spade spot, declarer won with the ace, unblocked the J of C and led the 9 of H. West won the king and shifted to a low diamond ruffed in dummy.

Freddan now abandoned trumps and just pumped clubs. That was a winner on this layout (the only other declarer in 4H went 3 down with same lead).

______AKT
______J732
________
______AKQ943
8643_________Q97
K____________AQ85
KJ964________AT5
T86__________752
______J52
______T964
______Q8732
______J

It would have been better for the defence to continue spades, but it's not always easy to find the optimal continuations even for very good players (West is on all-time high top 10 master point list in Sweden).

With dummys trump length preserved it would have been human to fall prey to the temptation of another round of trumps, going down when East can draw two rounds and play a diamond with a trump left to prevent the club suit running and dummy now without entries.

Freddan's table presence is excellent and I'm sure he would have gotten it right anyway.

Such a joy to be the dummy ;-)