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Hand Analyses 6th June, 2007
An iffy N-S game to start with. North may be minimum in the HCP department but she does have a couple of Aces and an extra trump, so we’d consider her good value for her 4♥ bid. Dummy turns out to be a disappointment, the QJ♦ are quite useless. But the poor game rolls home when the A♣ and the K♠ are both where Declarer needs them to be.
The vulnerability was enough to keep South out of the auction, and East was able to buy it for 2♠ after a Jacoby Transfer auction.
As South, against 2♠, what would be your opening lead? - A Spade? No, leading a singleton trump is notoriously dangerous, all too often it picks up Partner’s Qxx or Jxxx. - A Club? Definitely not! Underleading a King into a strong Declarer is risky enough, but when it’s from a long suit it is doubly so. At least when we underlead the Kxx (and find that Partner has no help in the suit) we still have a chance to score our King later in the play. When leading from KJxxxxx there is no such chance. - A Heart? Better than a Spade or a Club, but will that achieve anything? If we are to build any tricks in this suit Partner will need a very good holding. He didn’t Double 2♥ for the lead, perhaps he doesn’t have that very good holding. - A Diamond? That was Dr Goodlead’s choice: “Not without risk, of course”, said he, “but surely more promising than a Heart”.
As it happens, any lead but a Club is good enough to hold Declarer to 8 tricks.
East has a nice Heart suit but does not quite have the values for a 2♥ bid over the 2♣ interference. Instead he has to be satisfied with a Negative Double and is put on the spot when 4♣ gets back to him. Well, maybe not such an awkward spot, it seems clear to bid 4♦, non-forcing. Sure, he doesn’t quite have the values to commit to 10 tricks, but he’s not far off and would hate to let the auction die without showing his fine support for Partner.
4♦ turns out to be a most friendly contract, with just one trump loser and both missing Heart honors in the slot. Making 11 tricks, no less.
South did well not to rebid her Hearts, that would not have been a success. She reasoned that her Hearts were poor and that most of her values were in the unbid suits, so perhaps it was better to bail out of this auction before things got out of hand. Good decision!
2NT has reasonable chances and should make 8 or 9 tricks, though it’s hard to predict how the play might go, there are so many variations.
East might have overcalled 2♣, but was persuaded by the favorable vulnerability that perhaps a preempt was called for. How right he was! North reopened with a Double and poor South had nowhere to go. As the cards lie, South would have done best to bid 3♠ which goes down a trick, but in the featured auction she decided to take her chances on defense.
Against 3♣ doubled, South has an obvious Q♠ opening lead, hoping that a forcing defense will cause Declarer to lose trump control. Fortunately for Declarer, Dummy goes down with that lovely A♠, allowing him to win the first trick, draw 4 rounds of trumps, and then lose a Heart. That’s +470 for E-W.
Standard methods don’t handle monstrous balanced hands particularly well, as exemplified by the above inelegant auction. For example, imagine West with the same miserable hand but with a 4th Spade … now 4♠ is very much the place to be but the clumsy auction will have made that impossible. There is a space-saving device called Kokish which can be used in this situation, for more on which please see the Bidding Quiz.
However, with or without Kokish, East is destined to labor unsuccessfully in 3NT. Declarer has 6 top tricks and, with Spades 3-3, is able to build a 7th trick in that suit. The good news for Declarer is that South has a blind opening lead, and three of her four choices will give up the 8th trick. It turns out that a Diamond is the only lead not to blow a trick, but there’s no obvious reason for South to find this.
A Spade opening lead could be quite disastrous! Declarer wins the Q♠, cashes A♠, and exits a Spade. Now this hopeless contract will actually make if South does not shift to a Diamond.
East’s second Double showed some extra values and presumably only 3 Hearts.
Against 3♥, North does not have an appealing lead and may start out with a low Diamond. This is not a success, as we can see from the following line of play: Diamond to Dummy’s Ace Two more Diamonds are cashed, Declarer pitching a Spade A Heart to the Ten and North’s Ace North cashes a Spade Declarer ruffs the second round of Spades Two rounds of trumps Now, Declarer knocks out the A♣, ruffs the Spade return with his last trump, and at Trick 12 will be faced with a Club guess for the overtrick. If he finesses against the Ten and North wins the trick, the cold contract will be down one. But, by now, Declarer will have a perfect count on the hand. North started with 6 Spades, 2 Hearts, 3 Diamonds, 2 Clubs … the Club finesse is a sure thing! Making 10 tricks.
North does better if she starts out with the A♠, perhaps on the reasonable assumption that her non-supporting Partner is likely to be short in the suit. Here’s one way that Declarer can botch the proceedings: A♠ and Q♠ are cashed Declarer ruffs the 3rd round of Spades Heart to the King Heart to the Ten and North’s Ace Another Spade is ruffed The last trump is drawn (Declarer is now out) Three top Diamonds are cashed North takes the last three tricks with the A♣ and two Spades A tragic down two and the dreaded -200. Yes, Declarer went badly wrong, and should have pitched a Club on the 4th round of Spades. But that’s still down one, because South will have pitched 3 Clubs by now, and will be able to get a Club ruff for the setting trick.
North’s flighty preempt gets punished severely here! Here’s one possible line of play: Q♠ overtaken by West’s Ace Spade to North’s King A low Club to West’s Ace Spade ruff A♦ ruffed by Declarer K♣ is cashed Club won by East’s Ten Q♣ is cashed East must now lead a Diamond, allowing Declarer to escape with just one Heart loser. Down only two will seem like something of a triumph for N-S, but not really, it’s still -300 on a part-score hand.
Against 3NT, West leads the T♦, won by East’s Ace. At this point, a passive Club or Heart return will hold Declarer to 9 tricks, but that’s hard to find. More likely, East wi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
