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Hand Analyses November 15th, 2006
We start with an unhappy contract for N-S, where getting out for down one will be an achievement. North shows 20-21 HCP’s, South says “Big deal!”, and East leads a Spade to the Queen and King. Declarer does best to go after the Hearts, starting with the Queen, which East must duck to stop the entry to Dummy. Now, a low Heart to East’s King. At this point, the Spade suit is blocked and East is entryless. Furthermore, East will not know whether Declarer started with 2 or 3 or 4 Spades. In the circumstances, it looks best for East to exit safely with a Heart, the object of the exercise being to avoiding blowing tricks, as opposed to trying to set up tricks. Well, two can play at that game, so Declarer cashes her Hearts, and exits a Spade. East wins the Spade, and leads another Spade to West’s Ten.
By now, West is down to just minor suit cards, three in each suit. An attentive West will also know the exact layout at this point: - Declarer needs the AJ♦ and the A♣ to get up to her 20 HCP’s - Declarer surely has just 2 Clubs, otherwise she would have played on this suit earlier - Therefore, Declarer is currently down to: ♦ AJxx ♣ Ax.
West can make life simple by exiting with a Club, giving N-S a 7th trick. A Diamond shift keeps things in suspense for a bit longer, but all roads lead to 7 tricks, sooner or later the defense will be forced to lead Clubs.
Bold bidding by North, especially considering the vulnerability. But the suit is good and that always makes it that much harder for the opponents to make a low-level penalty Double, so we’d be inclined to risk the same bid. Anyway, the trick for N-S on this hand is to compete to 3♦ or 3♥, even though, in theory, perfect opponents can double either contract, and beat it one (with non-obvious defense) inflicting the dreaded -200 upon N-S. Anyway, the Bidding Quiz discusses the respective N-S bidding dilemmas, and, for the time being let’s assume that N-S manage to compete successfully to 3♦ or 3♥.
Against 3♦, it seems natural for East to start with the K♠, but that unfortunate lead allows Dummy to score a Spade ruff for Declarer’s 9th trick. To beat 3♦ East must find a trump opening lead (or cash a couple of Clubs, then switch to a trump), and this is most unlikely.
If South ends up in 3♥, she should also be down one, but, just like 3♦, it might well make. West leads a Spade, won on the board. Now, Declarer plays a Club, won by West’s Jack. West shifts to a Heart to stop the Club ruff in Dummy, and East is posed with a big dilemma: - if South has the A♣, and West the A♦, the killing defense is to take the A♥ and play another Heart - if South has the A♦, and West the A♣, the killing defense is to duck the first round of Hearts. However, if East guesses wrong it will be 100% West’s fault! Yes, West missed the chance of a really terrific play. He should win that first Club trick with the A♣! He can reasonably assume from the play of the Club suit that the K♣ is with East, so the extraordinarily far-sighted squandering of the Ace solves East’s later problem. One wonders how many Wests in the entire world would find this play at the table! Not many we suspect, and, sad to relate, not us! Playing the A♣ in this situation would truly be a thing of great beauty.
South’s hand only has 11 HCP’s and it does not pass the Rule of Twenty, but, conversely, it does have three “quick tricks” and that’s good enough for most players to open the hand. E-W did well not to push on to the 3-level, that will likely be down a couple of vulnerable tricks.
There’s not much to the play in 4♣ which makes 10 easy tricks.
A difficult auction for E-W. We don’t see anyway how they can stay out of game, and it’s probably just a question of whether they go down one in 5♣, or down one in 4♥. Just a miserable and depressing hand. Let’s move on.
N-S embarked on some adventurous vulnerable competing, and East must have been tempted to double 4♣, but instead he reasonably went for the 4♠ game.
We don’t usually like to make an opening lead of an unsupported Ace, but the risk of blowing a trick is reduced when Partner has raised the suit, and further reduced when we have a 10- or 11-card fit. So, South leads the A♣ against 4♠, gets her look at Dummy, Partner plays the Nine, and Declarer the Jack. What next?
What does Partner’s Nine mean? One common agreement in this situation (with Dummy having a singleton in the led suit) is for 3rd hand to give suit preference. She’ll play a low card to ask for the lower-ranking shift (Diamonds), and a high card to ask for the higher-ranking shift (Hearts). If she has no preference she plays a middling card. The Nine looks rather middling to us, though we cannot be absolutely sure … North might have started with K954, for example. Anyway, if that Nine really is high, there’s no rush to lead a Heart, Declarer’s Hearts aren’t going anywhere. We cannot continue Clubs, that’s a likely ruff-and-sluff for Declarer. That leaves a Diamond or a trump, and the safe exit turns out to be a trump. It won’t be entirely obvious that a trump is the right shift, especially looking at that entryless Dummy.
The card gods almost dealt us a delicious Play Problem! Suppose that North’s Spade holding is K43 and that Declarer holds AQT75. South gets out with the J♠ at Trick Two, won by Declarer’s Queen. How do you propose to make this contract? Easy! Cash AK♦, A♥ and lead a low Heart. South wins but has been stripped of her exit cards. Whatever she plays gives Dummy an entry for the Spade finesse. This line also works when South has 3 Diamonds … when in with the K♥, she can cash the Diamond, but now must give Dummy the vital entry, one way or the other.
Perhaps North should have competed here by showing a Spade one-suiter or a Spade-Diamond two-suiter. It turns out that 8 tricks are available in either suit.
But the play is much more interesting in 1NT! South leads the T♥, won by Declarer’s King. Next comes the A♣ and a low Club won by South’s King. Now, South cannot profitably attack Spades, and it doesn’t help for the defense to play a Diamond to the Ace, and a Spade through … Declarer ducks the Spades and the defense is held to just 5 tricks. Can the defense do better? Oh, yes! At Trick Two South must jettison the K♣! Now, it is North who wins the second Club, and she can lead Spades through … even if Declarer guesses, as before, to duck the Spades in an attempt to block the suit, North still has the A♦ entry to finish off the Spades. Down one! That K♣ play is so much easier to find looking at all 4 hands, of course.
South’s approach to bidding this hand will vary depending upon whether or not her side is playing Support Doubles and Redoubles. Please see the Bidding Quiz.
Careful play in 2♠ brings home 9 tricks. To see how, please see Play Problem # 90.
West’s 1NT is as good as it can be, some might even say too good, what with the 10 HCP’s, two Aces, and two Tens.
North leads a Heart, and South does best to duck this trick. She has no entries outside her suit, and the duck keeps her in touch with Partner’s hand. Declarer makes 9 tricks if she guesses the Spade suit, only 7 tricks otherwise. Fishing around for information before tackling the critical suit, Declarer plays K♣, Q♣, and a Club to her Ace. Now South is known to have started with 5 Hearts and 3 Clubs. Who has the A♦? North. How do we know? Well, surely South would have cleared the Hearts right away if she had a sure-fire entry. North did not open a Weak 2♦, so the odds are that South has at least two Diamonds. Where has all this fine detective work got us? Not very far! Despite all the deductive reasoning, there is plenty of room in both hands for the Q♠, so happy guessing!
South showed super-human restraint in not doubling 4♥, which was just as well because the contract turns out to be cold! Here is a possible line of play: Q♠ opening lead, won by Declarer Heart to the Ace Heart Eight overtaken by the Nine (necessary play!) Q♥ won by South’s King Club, ruffed by Declarer Cash J♥ Diamond to North’s Ace A♣, ruffed by Declarer’s last trump Now, South has the last outstanding trump, but Declarer has Diamond winners with both black suits under control. Note the importance of overtaking the Heart Eight. If Declarer neglects to do this, he’ll be short of entries back to his hand … he’ll have to use up the K♠, and will eventually lose control of the hand.
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