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Smooth Ducks (on defense)
Ducking can be an important ploy for the defense, just as it can be for Declarer. Usually the object of the exercise is to sever the enemy communications, but there can be a deceptive element also. In that case, the operative word is "smooth" if we intend to fool Declarer.
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
South leads a Spade to North’s Queen, then a Spade to South’s Ace and a third Spade. Dummy’s Diamond Queen is run around to South’s King, the defense cashes its Spade winner and exits safely with a Diamond. That is Declarer’s last entry to the board and he needs to take a Heart finesse and a Club finesse. The solution is simple enough, he runs the ♥Q first, and plays on Clubs next. Nine easy tricks.
Yes, South could have made Declarer’s life more difficult. She should smoothly duck the Diamond! Now Declarer’s correct play is to run the ♥Q around. When that finesse works, Declarer must decide whether use this last lead from Dummy to take the Diamond finesse again, or to take the Club finesse. He’ll probably guess to take the Diamond finesse, as that one has already worked once, and that will be down one.
But, if Declarer is aware of the possibility that South might have ducked the Diamond, then he should surely take the Club finesse. If it wins he is home … if it loses he has a second chance, namely doubleton Jack with North. A fascinating hand!
The play can go various ways, but most of them lead to down one. For example: ♣J opening lead is won by Declarer’s Queen Spade to West’s Ace Club to Dummy’s Ace ♠K, pitching a Diamond Heart to West’s King Club ruff.
However, West can be a star on this board. If he smoothly ducks his Ace at Trick 2, then Declarer will probably finesse the Jack, to her chagrin. That will be down two! Even if (after West’s duck) Declarer somehow guesses correctly and plays the King, she still goes down one (losing two Diamonds instead of one Diamond and one Spade).
Against 3NT, South leads a Spade won by Dummy’s Ace. Now Declarer will want to set up those Diamonds and will cross to hand with a Heart or a Club to finesse the ♦T. When that forces the King, Declarer has 9 tricks, but cannot manage a 10th if the defense discards correctly. The improbable route to 10 tricks is to cash the ♦A at Trick 2 and then lead the ♦Q, squashing South’s Jack. This double dummy play saves an entry to hand and gives Declarer the timing to set up a 10th trick in Hearts.
A Dastardly Duck: Let’s replay this one. Dummy wins the opening Spade lead on the board, crosses to the ♥A, and finesses the ♦T which North smoothly ducks. Now a gullible Declarer will cross to the ♣A, cash the ♠A and finesse the ♦Q. Oops! North wins the ♦K, cashes the ♠Q, crosses to South’s ♥K and two more Spades are cashed. Down one!
South makes the obvious Diamond lead. After the two Diamonds are cashed, let’s say that South shifts to a Club for want of better. Dummy wins that and a Spade is led to Declarer’s King. South ducks smoothly! Now Declarer is likely to return to the board and play a Spade to his Queen, losing two trump tricks for down one. Of course, if South had taken her ♠A on the first round of the suit, then Declarer would take the percentage finesse against the ♠J and rack up 10 tricks. Nicely done, all those Souths who found that play.
East’s hand is just not good enough to invite game, and that’s unfortunate because West has a maximum and, with the N-S cards as friendly as can be, 9 tricks can be made. But will they? North leads the J♠, won by Dummy’s Queen. A Diamond is led from the board and South smoothly plays the Ten. Good play by South as it gives Declarer a guess. The winning guess is to play the Queen, but Declarer might play low instead, hoping that North has the singleton Ace or King. If Declarer guesses wrong, he’ll be held to 8 tricks, so full marks to South for smoothly ducking the first Diamond.
South reasonably guessed to play in 3NT instead of the 5-3 Spade fit. This appears to be a good choice because “normal” defense against 4♠ results in a one-trick defeat (the losers are ♦A, ♦K, ♥K and ♠K).
How does 3NT do? West leads the ♦T to East’s Ace and on the Diamond return Declarer’s Queen is taken by the Ace. Declarer wins the third round, and, as East has shown out, the Heart finesse can be taken into the “safe hand” (the one with no Diamonds left). East wins the ♥K, but now Declarer has 9 tricks (a Spade, 3 Hearts, a Diamond, 4 Clubs) and +400.
Do you see how the defense blundered? Yes, that’s right, East should have ducked the first Heart trick! Now, when Declarer repeats the finesse, East grabs his King and shifts to a black suit (it doesn’t matter which one). Thanks to that clever duck, Declarer is cut off from her Heart winners; she plays ♠A and a low Spade towards Dummy, but West grabs his ♠K and two Diamonds for down one.
Deep Finesse tells us that Declarer can make 3NT anyway. And so she can, at least playing double dummy. After the first Heart finesse is ducked, Declarer plays a Heart to the Ace, cashes her Clubs and throws in West with a Diamond. After the Diamonds are cashed, West is end-played in Spades! 9 tricks the highly improbable way!
At first glance, the play appears to be routine … K♣ is ducked, win the A♣ on the next round, cross to the board, losing Heart finesse, making 10 tricks. But, Declarer has trouble untangling his tricks. If he crosses to the board at Trick 3 with a low Spade to the Queen, and then takes a losing Heart finesse, a Diamond return will knock out Dummy’s entry before the Spades can be unblocked. So, Declarer does best to cash the AK♠ first, then cross to the board on a Spade and take the losing Heart finesse. Now, it’s plain sailing, and 10 tricks are made.
Pretty simple, eh? Not exactly! Don’t be fooled by that “plain sailing” red herring, South has the chance here to be a star. When East takes the Heart finesse, South smoothly ducks! Now, East is mentally scoring up 11 tricks and +660, as he finesses the Heart again. Instead, it’s curtains for Declarer … South wins, a Diamond comes back, and suddenly, the contract is down one, as Declarer is cut off from his winning Hearts. Imaginative play by South … though not without risk … she would look quite foolish if it turned out that North started with Jxx of Hearts! But at least South has the comfort of knowing that she can rely on Partner’s legendary sense of humor in such situations. Right?
Against 3NT, East leads a Diamond, won by Dummy’s Queen. Then, K♣, and A♣, and the losing Heart finesse. Declarer now has 10 tricks, and a surprise 11th materializes when the T♥ comes down on the third round. Is this an easy game or what? Well, actually it’s not at all easy (that’s why we play it!), and the question here is “In the aforementioned line of play, which defender fell from grace?” West followed suit impeccably, in our opinion, but East missed the chance for a fine play. When Declarer finesses her Q♥, East saves a trick by ducking! Now that 3rd Heart trick is but a wistful dream, due to a lack of entries, and 10 tricks are the maximum. Of course, Declarer could have saved a Dummy entry by taking the Heart finesse at Trick Two, before testing the Clubs. That's a better line, but it would still be fine play by East to duck the K♥ ... this gives Declarer a later Heart guess.
As East, playing in 3♥, how do you propose to make 9 tricks on the opening lead of the K♠? Here is one road to ruin: K♠ opening lead, ruffed by Declarer J♣ led, South gives count, North ducks craftily T♣ won by North Club ruffed by South T♥ won by East Yes, ruin indeed! Dummy can still get a Diamond ruff, but that will be just 8 tricks. Nice defense by North but let’s remember that the aforementioned “crafty duck” was enabled by N-S giving count signals where appropriate. The duck would have looked quite foolish if Declarer started with just two Clubs, but South’s count signal makes the duck safe.
Of course, Declarer has no obligation to allow the defense to shine, and he would have done better to scramble 9 tricks via 2 Diamond ruffs on the board.
East was close to bidding 4♥, and the good news for our featured E-W is that the 4♥ game is not very good, while the bad news is that it happens to make. Suppose that North leads the T♣, won by Dummy’s Ace. Now it seems like the most natural thing in the world to take the trump finesse. Natural, perhaps, but also a mistake. Let’s say that the finesse wins, after which it is a simple matter to lead towards the K♠, praying for an onside Ace, and if that K♠ proves to be an entry then the Heart finesse can be repeated for 10 tricks. That’s all very well, but here are a couple of reasons why this is not the best line of play: - If North has ♥Kxx she might craftily duck the first round of Hearts, so that, after getting back to the board with the K♠ and repeating the finesse, Declarer will have ended up wasting both of his Dummy entries on a fruitless mission. - If South has the A♠, then there will only be one entry to the board, and one finesse won’t be enough to pick up ♥Kxx in the South hand.
Yes, the correct play at Trick Two is to take the Diamond finesse, playing for the extra trick which needs only one finesse, and which is immune from a crafty North duck. When that works it’s 9 tricks for sure, when the A♠ is onside it’s 10 tricks, and then there is even a chance of 11 if the K♥ is onside doubleton.
As luck would have it, taking the Heart finesse at Trick Two provides the same 10 tricks as the correct line, which is a shame, it would have been nice to see virtue rewarded for a change.
3NT is certainly the right spot, although the T♥ lead will make Declarer distinctly nervous. However, if Declarer guesses everything right, he might even make 10 tricks: Q♥ wins the opening lead Club finesse loses to North’s King Heart continuation won by Declarer’s Ace Declarer’s two high Clubs are cashed (the Ten dropping) Four rounds of Diamonds ending on the board The Club Nine is cashed Now a Spade is led from the board and Declarer comes to one more trick (South must duck, of course).
In the above line, North missed the chance for a good (but somewhat risky) play. If she ducks the Club when Declarer finesses the Queen, Declarer will no doubt waste the last remaining dummy entry to repeat the finesse. When this loses, there’ll be no way to get to the good 9♣. And what exactly was the risk by North of ducking that first round of Clubs? Well, it would not be a success if Declarer did not also have the J♣!
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