Nasty Guess

29th August – Board 16: East/West Vul. Dealer West.

Elimination and endplay hands happen a lot although you still sometimes have to make a guess at a critical moment.

	North: S 10 4 3 H J D J 7 4 C Q 9 8 6 4 2
West: S J 9 5 H K 10 7 6 2 D K 5 3 C 10 3		East: S A 8 6 H A Q 9 8 4 3 D A 6 2 C K
	South: S K Q 7 2 H 5 D Q 10 9 8 C A J 7 5

West	North	East	South
No	No	1H	Dbl
3H	No	4H	End

It’s possible that North/South will ‘save’ in 5C but that would be expensive if declarer was not going to make 4H, and indeed he would have to be on his toes if South led a diamond. The best line is to win the lead in hand, cross to dummy with a trump and lead a club. (Sometimes the king will win!) However South will win and play another diamond but now declarer wins in dummy, ruffs the remaining club and exits with a diamond. Whoever wins will be forced to open up the spade suit or concede a ruff and discard. If South wins his best bet is to lead a low spade hoping that declarer will play him for the ten and play low from dummy while if North wins he should return a low spade to South’s king and again South must continue with a low spade trying to convince declarer he started with K10xx. It’s a close call but maybe with South’s take-out double he would read the situation correctly. Whatever the case if declarer tackled the spade suit himself he would be bound to lose two tricks in that suit and four tricks in all.

No Swing

9th May – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

East could approach the treatment of his hand in different ways but ultimately whatever route he chose would most likely make no difference at all.

	North: S 5 4 H A Q 10 4 2 D K 9 3 2 C K 9
West: S Q 10 7 H 9 7 D Q J 10 C Q J 10 6 4		East: S A K J 9 3 2 H none D A 8 6 5 C A 8 7
	South: S 8 5 H K J 8 6 5 3 D 7 4 C 5 3 2

West	North	East	South
No	1H	Dbl	4H
Dbl	No	4S/No?	End

East has a close choice initially between a simple overcall and a double and the latter just about gets my vote in that it leads the way open to finding a possible diamond slam. Against that of course you don’t want to be left playing in 1S….Whatever you do South should pre-empt to 4H and West should double to show some general values. You might think that if East chooses to pass the double an 800 penalty would ensue but it is not as simple as that. Without second sight East will cash his top spades and then be endplayed. 

He will either have to concede a ruff and discard or cash an ace, thus promoting the king of that suit in declarer’s hand. On the other hand if he chooses to bid 4S he will make all thirteen tricks due to both minor suit finesses working. Indeed 6S is a good contract but hard to bid with any degree of certainty. Take away the ten of clubs and the jack of diamonds from West’s hand and the slam is virtually impossible and although bidding has come a long way it is just not that precise. So there you have it – 500 against 510, or no swing.

Ace for Attitude, King for Count

 1st September – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.
Guest Blogger: Jill
I love to read David’s blogs, but I sometimes think they’re a bit too difficult for we mere mortals. And will I remember what he’s said (eg in Fire with Fire below) when the same situation comes up in three years’ time?! Here’s something that’s dead easy to remember and comes up quite often.

South	West	North	East
1S	2C	3S	No
End

You might or might not agree with the bidding, but South is declarer in 3S. West leads out the A and K of clubs and everyone follows. What next? Who has the remaining club? If it’s declarer, West can lead another club knowing that partner can ruff (or over-ruff) North. But if partner has the last club, that will give declarer a ruff and discard. You need to know how many clubs partner had to start with. You won’t often lead the Ace or King without having both, so you can lead the Ace when you want to know partner’s Attitude to the suit, and the King when you want to know Count – the number of cards he has in the suit. So in this case, West leads the King first. As partner has an even number of cards, he plays a high one followed by a low one (with an odd number, he plays his lowest card first). In another situation, if you want to know attitude, you lead the Ace. If partner likes it (eg if he has the Queen), he plays a high card. If not, he plays a low one and you can switch to another suit.

Textbook Technique

3rd March – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

There were loads of different contracts and results on the featured hand but for once I am not interested in the bidding but the play in 6D from the North hand, as it should feature a smart play straight from the textbooks. Superficially it looks as though the contract depends upon the heart finesse, for if that works declarer has one spade, two hearts, six diamonds and three clubs. With the king badly placed you might think that declarer would lose two heart tricks but that needn’t be the case. Here is what should happen: Declarer wins the spade lead (say), draws trumps in two rounds and cashes the ace of hearts. He then crosses to the South hand with a club to ruff the remaining spade, cashes the remaining two clubs ending in dummy and leads a heart to the queen. If the king is well placed there is no problem, but if East holds that card doubleton then he will find himself endplayed. With only black cards left he will be forced to give declarer a ruff and discard and his twelfth trick in the process. It’s the same old story: so many times when a finesse is working you just don’t have to take it.

Rara Avis

14th October – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

	North: S Q 9 7 H Q 8 2 D J 8 7 5 3 2 C A
West: S J 8 6 4 2 H J 9 4 D Q C K Q 8 2		East: S 10 5 3 H A 10 5 D K 9 C 10 7 6 4 3
	South: S A K H K 7 6 3 D A 10 6 4 C J 9 5

I would expect most pairs to bid to the inferior contract of 3NT on the featured hand, a contract that would prevail on any lead except a low club. And if I were playing I cannot pretend that the bidding would go any differently from: -

West	North	East	South
No	No	No	1H
1S	2D	2S	2NT
No	3H	No	3NT
End

You might argue that it would be naïve of West to lead a spade after this auction, for declarer surely has a double stop, which perhaps should lead to the winning shot of a low club. (Leading the king would let declarer make.) But have you noticed that 5D, although a rare enough contract, cannot be defeated? Say West leads a spade. Declarer can win, play a club to the ace and return to hand with a spade. A club is ruffed in dummy and the last club thrown on the queen of spades, after which declarer exits with ace and another diamond. Poor East has to win and either open up the heart suit or concede a ruff and discard.