From                 30th August, 2006, Board 18

                                          Theme               Entry Management

                                                                    Carding Agreements

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr North          E-W Vul           Hands Rotated

                                                                                             for Convenience

West leads the Spade 4 and East plays the 9.  Plan the play.

You can count 8 tricks off the top, and the obvious source of more is the Diamond suit.  Of course, if you lose a Diamond, you must hope that the defense does not rattle off 4 Club tricks to beat the contract.  How do you play the Diamond suit?

SOLUTION

Can you cater for any 4-1 Diamond breaks?  One line of play is to lead low towards the KT9, winning against the East's QJxx holdings.  However, you don't have the entries to do this ... for example, suppose that you cross to the Q♥ and lead a low Diamond ... if East has QJxx, and is awake, he'll insert the Jack ... now, when we run the Ten around, East will win the Queen, and knock out Dummy's Heart entry while the Diamonds are still blocked.

No, it looks as if we'll need a 3-2 Diamond break, and hopefully the opponents will be able to cash just 3 Clubs, or, better yet, they'll continue with Spades and let us make 10 tricks!  But, if we are going to benefit from that Spade continuation, it won't do to cash the high Diamonds and exit a Diamond ... in that case the Spade continuation will play havoc with our entries, holding us to 9 tricks.

The suggested line of play is to win the King of Spades at Trick One, a play that is consistent with having started with KQx ... now, we'll run the 9♦, losing to East.  Having won the Diamond, East may well continue Spades, playing Partner to have started with AJxxx.  That will be 10 tricks if Diamonds break 3-2.

	♠ 53 ♥ AQ ♦ A6543 ♣ T964
♠ J8742 ♥ 97 ♦ Q87 ♣ KQ3	North    West         East            South	♠ T96 ♥ JT642 ♦ J2 ♣ AJ8
	♠ AKQ ♥ K853 ♦ KT9 ♣ 752

See the importance of losing the first Diamond to East?  She is the one who is in the dark about the Spade suit (thanks to our thoughtful King play at Trick One), and therefore less likely to find the Club switch.

Keys to Success

   - Winning the first Spade with the King, the play that is consistent with KQx

   - Realizing that entry problems preclude playing East for ♦ QJxx

   - Losing a Diamond to East, the player who is in the dark about the Spade situation

Defensive Carding Postscript

How was East to know the Spade situation?  Perhaps his side should have been playing the Smith Echo.  By this carding agreement, when Declarer leads the first round of his suit (Diamonds in this case) either or both of the defenders may high-low to say "I like the opening lead", and low-high otherwise.  Playing Smith, West would play the Seven on the first round of Diamonds ... this is clearly West's lowest Diamond, so he does not like Spades ... what else is left but Clubs?