Leg Pull

Cambridge is "blessed" with enough bridge clubs that it is possible to play duplicate every night of the week,  I was therefore delighted to be invited by Tanawan Watts to play at the Cottenham club on Friday. In a slightly whimsical way, of which I thoroughly approve, the Cottenham club is actually not in Cottenham but in Girton, some five miles away.

This was Board 20 (details transposed for convenience).

Sitting South with both sides vulnerable,  I picked up, second in hand, ♠Q10875 ♥J102 ♦A752 ♣7 and heard the hand on my right open with a weak 2♥. After a slightly uneasy pass by West, my partner doubled for take out and the hand came back to me. Since Tanawan had been in pass out position for her take-out double, I contented myself with bidding 2♠ and heard 3♥ on my left. Tanawan competed with 3♠ and, although I did consider adding "one for the road", having earlier spoken to partner about the poor tactics of stretching to bid thin games at pairs, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour  - and so 3♠ became the final contract.

My left hand opponent led ♥Q and this is what I saw:

			♠A643
			♥A7
			♦K964
			♣A85
			♠Q10875
			♥J102
			♦A752
			♣7

 

My first thought was that if spades were 2-2, we had missed an easy game - how could I justify my earlier "cautionary" words?  There seemed to be a lot of clubs missing, and presumably the weak two bidder had a few of those, so he figured to be shorter in spades - my mind then pondered how to cope with a 3-1 break. I could perhaps cross to hand with ♦A and lead the spade queen, hoping to pin a singleton nine or knave on my right. However this would not look very clever if instead the hand on my right had started with a singleton or doubleton king. In the former case, I would have magicked a second spade loser, where only one existed previously, and in the latter case, my opponent would almost certainly continue with two further rounds of hearts and my second heart winner would be ruffed away, leaving me reliant on a 3-2 diamond break for my tenth trick. A further risk would be that my right hand opponent had started with ♠KJx in a 3613 shape. Too many losing options, I thought - and after winning the ♥A, called for the ♠A from dummy.

It was not a pleasant feeling when right hand opponent duly showed out! From a position of working out how to make an overtrick, I was now faced with the threat of one undertrick, maybe two.

Remembering the helpful words inscribed on the cover of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, I recalled that the way to handle situations like this is to try and make as many of my side tricks and small trumps as possible - then in the end game, maybe the opponents winners and trumps would crash together.

Having won the first two tricks with aces, I continued by cashing the ♣A (at this point partner gave me a slightly quizzical look). I then followed with a club ruff, a diamond to the king and a second club ruff. Time to establish a heart trick, while I still have an entry to play it, I mused, and led the ♥J, won on my right by the ♥K, who continued with  the ♦J. Going to plan nicely, I thought, and played the ♦A - but diamonds were 4-1 and this was ruffed on my left! Oh no, so now two diamond losers to go with the heart loser and three spade losers..........but not so, for the position was (with West on lead):

			♠643
			None
			♦96
			None
		♠KJ		None
		None		♥986
		None		♦Q10
		♣KQJ		None
			♠Q10
			♥J
			♦75
			None

 

West was now faced with a choice of poisons but she could not stop me making three of the remaining tricks: her only winners were destined to be the ♠KJ - or she could play two rounds of trumps and instead I would lose only one spade and one diamond. Somehow two of my six losers had disappeared into thin air.

"Should I have bid four?," asked Tanawan rather sweetly.

Not easy......

Put yourself in the position of East in this deal from the London Year-end Mixed Pairs held on December 29th 2012. Cover the North and West hands to give yourself a real test.

The bidding was simple. After West's pass, North opened the bidding with 1NT (12-14). South transferred to spades and bid 3NT over North's 2♠ response, which North corrected to 4♠.

With little to go on, East led the ♠10. Declarer played low from dummy and West won with the ♠K. West now switched to ♦K which held the trick, and followed with ♦8 which declarer won with the ace.

Declarer continued by playing a spade to dummy's ace, partner playing the ♠2 and another spade from dummy on which partner played ♠J and declarer won with the ♠Q. Unwilling to release a club or a heart at this stage, you postpone the decision by discarding your last diamond but declarer follows by leading a diamond from hand and you have to decide......

Well, partner has already showed up with 9 points, so there is no room for him to have the king in either clubs or hearts, hence declarer has nine tricks. If declarer also had the ♥Q, that would mean ten tricks so we might as well suppose that partner has that card - in which case he certainly won't have ♣J.

What about shape? If declarer had a doubleton in either clubs or hearts, he would not have played the hand this way, so we can assume that he has at least three cards in both those suits to go with his three spades and three diamonds. What is his thirteenth card?

If it is a club, you are finished anyway. Declarer knows that you have the ♣Q (you would surely not have led a risky spade to trick one with ♥QJ in your hand), so he will play his clubs from the top and even if partner has ♣108, you won't be able to stop him from establishing a third club winner.

So, you conclude that you can safely throw a club at this juncture.

Declarer ruffs the diamond in dummy, plays a heart to his king and leads his fourth diamond from hand, what now?

The easiest thing to do - and what happened at the table - is to think that the thirteenth heart no longer matters and to discard one. Fatal error - this is easy for declarer to read. He ruffs with dummy's last trump, plays ♥A and dummy's last heart. Whether partner wins with ♥Q, or unblocks and you win with ♥J, your side is endplayed. At the table, West won and had to lead a club. On the ♣5 lead, declarer played low from hand and the ♣Q was sandwiched between the ♣A9 tenace on table.

However, if instead you counter-intuitively discarded a club on the fourth round of diamonds, declarer has a tricky decision. He might of course guess right by playing his clubs from the top, dropping your now doubleton queen. But he might also decide to play you to have started with five clubs and your partner to have a doubleton ♣10. Now the right play would be to play a club to the king and then play back the ♣J to pin the presumed ten in West's hand.

Assuming that declarer would have guessed wrong, discarding a second club made the difference between a near top and a near bottom!