|
Hand Analyses 17th October, 2007
2♦ was Michaels, showing both the majors. Against 4♠, West leads a Diamond to East’s Ace, then it’s a Club back to West’s Ace, and a Diamond continuation. Best play now is a Spade to the Queen and a low Heart towards the board. East will take his A♥ but that is the end for the defense, who will wind up with just their three Aces.
West’s 3♦ preempt puts North on the spot. The actual choice of Pass looks somewhat feeble, but nothing else seems very appetizing either. As for South, she did not have enough for a reopening Double, so 3♦ was the final contract. 3♦ is down one or two tricks, the play is difficult to predict.
If North does find a bid over 3♦ it will probably be 3♥, which will get her to 4♥ in a hurry. That contract is down one, the defense scoring its minor suit Aces and two trump tricks.
South may have 10 HCP’s but we don’t think that her hand is worth anything more than a 2♥ raise, not even a Drury bid (if that is available). That doubleton KQ♣ is a big negative factor.
As North, how would you propose to make 9 tricks in Hearts? Please see the Play Problem.
Back to the bidding. Holding the West cards, would you be tempted to make a pre-balancing Double of 2♥? A bit risky at this vulnerability, but, yes, it is tempting. Intrepid pre-balancers will get to 3♣ down one (no doubt undoubled) for a good result. Or else N-S will push on to 3♥ and have a challenging contract on their hands (see Problem, as per above).
Well bid, Mr East! He refrained from bidding the Unusual 2NT (showing Clubs and Hearts in this case), and wisely bid his Club suit, in order to get Partner off to the right lead. As can be seen, a Club lead allows the defense to get their two tricks while the getting is good. If East had bid 2NT (or passed), West might well lead a Heart (trying to get a ruff) or a Diamond (trying to give Partner a ruff), and that will be 12 tricks for Declarer.
After South’s 2♥, North is faced with a familiar decision. Should she pass 2♥, probably playing in a 4-3 fit, or should she choose the 5-2 Spade fit? The 5-2 fit is usually the way to go in these situations, all the more so here because, with 2 Aces, South would like to keep the auction alive, just in case Partner has some extras. North does indeed have a little extra, but not enough to make a game try, so 2♠ will end the proceedings.
How do those Heart and Spade contracts play? According to Deep Finesse, both contracts make 9 tricks, and it’s easy enough to see how this might occur playing in Spades: Diamond lead is ducked, if only for practice Diamond continuation is won by the Ace Trump is lost to West’s King Diamond is ruffed Trump is lost to West’s Ace Diamond is ruffed A third round of trumps is drawn Now, with normal play, Declarer has a Heart loser at the end. 9 tricks.
Playing in Hearts, things are more delicate, and Declarer does best to play on the Spade side-suit early in the play. Yes, that’s usually good advice when trump control is an issue: Diamond lead is ducked (more practice!) Diamond continuation is won by the Ace Spade is lost to West’s King Diamond is ruffed Another Spade is lost, to West’s Ace Club shift won by Dummy’s Ace (important to keep that K♣ entry to hand) K♥ and Q♥ are cashed Now the Spades are run, and whatever West does, he will be held to just one more trick. Nice play by Declarer who (a) played on Spades early, (b) drew just two rounds of trumps, and (c) made sure that the A♥ was withheld from those two rounds to allow the overruff.
A long-winded auction for N-S, please see the Bidding Quiz. For the time being let us just say that 3♣ was Fourth Suit Forcing, 3♦ was an improvisation (what else could South do?), and that 4♠ and 5♦ were cue-bids.
On to the play. 6♥ is a pretty decent contract, but it is destined to fail. It may fail spectacularly or prosaically, but fail it surely will: - Spectacular Defense: This West is eager to get his name in the newspapers, so he tries a low Club to East’s Jack. When the Jack holds, East has no trouble figuring out that esteemed Partner has done a little bit of underleading and requires a Diamond ruff. Down one! - Prosaic Defense: This West has no such aspirations to glory (or perhaps he has a Partner without a sense of humor) so he leads the A♣. He then continues the suit, ruffed in Dummy. The K♥ and Q♥ are cashed, then a Diamond to Declarer’s Ace in order to extract that last enemy trump. Oops! West ruffs, cashes another Club, and that is down two! So, the underleader gets the good story, and the routine play gets the good board.
After that 3♣ preempt, 3NT is very much the required bid with the West hand. It won’t always make, of course, but it is the most descriptive bid available. Doubling 3♣, with those poor majors, would be quite wrong.
Against 3NT, North leads the Q♠, won by Declarer. Assuming that the Diamond finesse is probably losing, there are 8 tricks in view, and Clubs will provide the 9th. However, there is a shortage of entries to the board, so that Heart entry must be used to lead towards the J♣, and not for the purposes of taking the doomed Diamond finesse: Q♠ won by Declarer’s Ace Club to the King and South’s Ace Q♥ wins the return A♦ and K♦ are cashed The J♦ is lost to North’s Queen The K♠ wins the return Cross to the T♦ A♥ and K♥ are cashed Now a Club is led, and South can take his Q♣ and J♥, but must surrender the final trick to Declarer’s J♣. Nine tricks.
E-W can make 12 tricks in No Trump, but it’s a difficult slam to reach. In the featured auction, East’s 2♥ was Fourth Suit Forcing, and West’s 2NT showed 12-14. East’s 17 HCP’s put the partnership in the 29-31 HCP range, usually not enough for two balanced hands to make a No Trump slam. So, East quite reasonably signed off in 3NT, catching Partner with a super-maximum and a good fit. Making 12 tricks when the Diamonds behave.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
