From                 10th May, 2006, Board 13

                                          Theme               Fishing for Clues

                                                                     Deceptive Defense

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr West           Both Vul             Hands Rotated

                                                                                               for Convenience

West leads the K♥, and East plays the Ten, and you duck.  Next comes the Q♦, and you duck again.  Then, a low Diamond to East’s Ace, and the 9♥ is returned.

Plan the play.

SOLUTION

There’s not much point in ducking a Heart, not when a later Club misguess will put you down one anyway.  Also, ducking a Heart gives up on the possibility of making 10 tricks.  So, win the A♥ and decide how to play the Clubs.  Lazy thinking might cause Declarer to play East for Qxx in Clubs on the grounds that West has shown long Hearts.  This may well be the percentage line of play, but first we should do some sleuthing on the distribution.  It costs nothing to cash 3 Spades, and the K♦ before committing ourselves in the Club suit.

On the second and third rounds of Spades West pitches two Hearts.  That changes everything!  Then on the K♦, both defenders follow low.  Now, it seems pretty clear that West started with 1-6-4-2 distribution, and that the Queen is doubleton in one hand or the other.

	♠ T764 ♥ 2 ♦ K96 ♣ AJ965
♠ 5 ♥ KQ8753 ♦ QJ74 ♣ Q4	North    West          East            South	♠ J9832 ♥ T94 ♦ A32 ♣ 83
	♠ AKQ ♥ AJ6 ♦ T85 ♣ KT72

Keys to Success

   - Ducking the opening lead of the K♥ (forcing West to shift)

   - Ducking the shift to the Q♦ (keeping West on lead)

   - Fishing for clues in the other suits before making the critical Club guess

Postscript

On the third round of Diamonds, would it have helped the defense if West had ditched the Q♦, in an attempt to mislead Declarer about the distribution?  Actually, no, that might have caused Declarer to suspect that West was 1-6-3-3, and would have done nothing to protect the Q♣.  But imagine, if you will, the same layout and distribution, but with the Q♣ in the East hand.  Now, it would be a fine defensive play by West if he would dump the Q♦ under the King ... Declarer may smell a rat, but may well conclude that West started life with 1-6-3-3 shape ... he'll lay down the K♣, takes the losing Club finesse, and that will be down 3 instead of making an overtrick!

Home    Hand Analyses    Bidding Quizzes     Play Problems    System Library