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Hand Analyses 2nd August, 2006
In the featured auction, East had a close decision over North's 3♣ ... should he bid 3♠ or 4♠? Of course, you can look at the East hand in two ways. One is the glass half-empty approach, as in “I have the wasted singleton K♥, better not bid too much with this seriously flawed 14-count”. But, well done, East, if he chose the glass half-full approach, as in “Wow, what a great 11-count, don’t need much from Partner to make game”. As it happens, 4♠ needs little more than the Diamond finesse, and that is very much odds on given the bidding. So boldness would be rewarded here ... not that we would fault those E-W pairs who languished in a Spade partial.
North's 3♦ was preemptive, of course, after which East must decide how many Hearts to bid. Please see the Bidding Quiz for more on this.
Suppose that West ends up in 4♥. How would you set about making that vital overtrick? See Play Problem.
Would you open the West hand? We certainly wouldn't, it's a crummy 11-count with few redeeming features and some negatives, not least of which is minimal values, some of them dubious, and blah distribution. No reason to get involved at this point in the proceedings.
After West’s sage Pass, South ends up declaring 1NT, and will be able to rustle up seven tricks one way or another. A typical line of play will be … Spade lead won by Declarer’s King, Diamond to the Jack, A♦, out a Diamond … now they can cash their Spade winners, but Declarer is up to 6 tricks, and has the timing to set up a 7th in Clubs.
Suppose that sagacity is not West’s strong suit and he goes ahead anyway with a 1♠ opening. He’ll end up in 2♠, mercifully undoubled, but it will be down one for -100 when -90 was but a mere Pass away.
That West hand is extremely difficult to bid using natural methods. Not many would object to a 2♣ opening bid by West (we certainly wouldn’t). But, we do prefer 1♠, it gives the partnership a better chance to get to a minor suit slam … conversely, it also offers a better chance to play it in 1♠ making 5! We hesitate to explain the featured auction in too much detail, lest you think that we actually recommend it. Let’s just say that 3♣ was game forcing, 3♦ and 4♦ and 5♣ were natural, and 5NT was pick-a-slam. Yes, a pretty obscure auction, but, as we said, this is a very difficult hand for E-W.
If you got to the 7♣ or 7♦ on this one you did amazingly well, it’s not cold, but it’s certainly a big favorite. As for 7♠, that also makes, but it’s not a good contract.
More frisky preempting by White vs Red protagonists. That 4♥ bid was going for 800, but it seemed most reasonable for South to push on to 5♣. Making 6 when the Club finesse works.
A fairly straightforward auction. West’s 1NT was the Forcing No Trump, and the rebid of 2NT was natural and invitational. East was quite borderline in terms of accepting.
The auction may have been reasonable enough, but the resulting contract is quite poor. They lead a Heart, of course, and it looks like you need a Club miracle to have a chance. No reason to delay … … you lead a Club right away, and the bridge gods smile on you … AQ doubleton in the South chair means 10 tricks.
Nothing to the auction. In the play, just as in the previous hand, a minor side-suit is AQ doubleton on-side in the South hand, and an unexpectedly large number of tricks materialize for E-W. Playing in his Heart part-score, the fortunate lie of the cards means that West need only lose 3 tricks in the side-suits. But what about the trump suit? With X-Ray vision there are no trump losers, of course, but try to forget about the actual hand and consider your line of play when you lead a trump towards Dummy’s Ace. Here are the 3 cases: Case A: North plays a low card Case B: North plays the Ten Case C: North plays the Queen.
Case A is straightforward enough, you’ll finesse against the Queen on the second round of trumps. Case B is not so tough, either. Does North have Ten singleton? Or QT doubleton? Well, if it’s Ten singleton, that means that South has Qxxx, and the Queen cannot be picked up. So, there’s something to be said for playing the King on the second round of the suit, hoping for the QT doubleton case. Case C seems like a no-brainer, does it not? Once the Queen has dropped, how could you not finesse against the Ten on the second round of the suit?
Now, if you can trust your opponents to play straight down the middle, the above analysis is irrefutable. But opponents have been known to be quite devious, sometimes they try to trick us. No, really, they do, we’ve seen it happen. For example, if, as North, you hold QT doubleton of trumps, knowing (almost for sure) that Declarer has a 6-2 fit, how can it be wrong to drop the Queen on the first round? Imagine your glee when your T♥ wins that second Heart trick! Yes, you'll need Declarer to have the Nine to get away with this one.
Even better, picture yourself as North, and you hold T3 in the trump suit. Declarer leads a trump and you play the Ten! This play presents a losing option to Declarer, he may decide to play you for QT doubleton, much to his chagrin!
Aah, yes … false-carding! … one of the game’s great pleasures! But, in the above situation, as Declarer, don’t give your opponent too much credit for false-carding unless you know him well … but, do, by all means, next time this situation comes up, remember as North to play the Ten from Tx, and the Queen from QT. Can’t hurt, may help. Well, let’s amend that to “won’t usually hurt” … it would provide much mirth at the table if you craftily played the Queen from QT (under Dummy’s Ace), only to find later that Partner held Kxx, and that Declarer had based his Weak Two on Jxxxxx! If this happens, then hopefully your Partner has a good sense of the ridiculous.
A typical misfit auction to a reasonable contract.
West leads a Diamond, won by East’s Ace, and he continues with the J♦, won by South’s Queen. Next, the losing Club finesse, after which East’s only safe exit is a Club. Now, Declarer cashes the Clubs, putting East through the wringer. He must come down to 5 cards, 2 of which must be Spades. How about the other 3 cards? There are two cases: (a) East keeps A♥ and ♦Tx … in this case, Declarer comes down to ♠3, ♥KQ, and ♦9x, and on the lead of a Heart from the board, East is done for. (b) East keeps ♥Ax and T♦ … in this case, Declarer comes down to ♠3, ♥KQx , and ♦9, and again, after a Heart lead, 9 tricks are made.
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