A Tale of Two's and Three's

My first session back at the table after several weeks away, produced a bit of a mixed bag of results. 

This hand caused a fair degree of hilarity around the room:

This was the “problem” from my side of the table. 

With both sides vulnerable and holding:  ♠A10965 ♥85 ♦10 ♣A10872, I passed as dealer and was slightly taken aback to hear partner open with 6♦, third in hand. What (if anything) should I bid?

Well, if you assume that partner is bidding sanely, the only reasonable explanation must be that he has two two black suit voids. He presumably holds thirteen red cards but has a gap (or perhaps gaps) which cause him to hesitate to contract for thirteen tricks – he might also be worried that a more scientific approach could result in allowing the opponents to find a black suit sacrifice. Perhaps he is missing ♦K or, more likely, ♦Q and some number of small diamonds. Missing either of these key cards, it seems clear to pass.

But in fact, before you have a chance to get the green card out of your bidding box, your left hand opponent doubles!

At teams, I might have considered a redouble – the opportunity for gain (an additional 240 points, for the contract making – assuming no overtrick – against a potential additional loss of 200, would certainly be in my favour, possibly offset by the risk of the opponents running). Playing  pairs, however,  I essayed a smooth pass.

Now look at the full deal:

East’s double had little to recommend it – except that - as confirmed by Deep Finesse - the contract can be defeated. How?

Clearly a black suit lead allows declarer to ditch his two low hearts and simply concede one diamond trick. A diamond lead away from the queen leads the defence to suffer a similar fate - but consider:

a.       ♦Q lead

Close – but not good enough! Declarer wins in hand and cashes two more top diamonds and one top heart, then throws East in by leading his diamond deuce. East perforce wins the trick and now has to give the lead to dummy, allowing the pitch of the losing hearts. (If the ♦2 and ♦3 were switched between the North and East hands, East could avoid the endplay by unblocking his trumps from the top, but North could then draw all the trumps and get off lead with a small heart).

b.      ♥J lead

This is the killer! In fact declarer has to be careful not to go two down! If he wins in hand and cashes his top two trumps, for example, East unblocks with ♦9 and ♦7. He wins the third round of diamonds with ♦Q and plays back the ♦3. If declarer “carelessly” wins this, he is stranded in hand again and must lose two hearts at the end. So he must underplay his deuce!

Alternatively declarer can simply duck the opening lead of ♥J and East has no good lead to the second trick; he can always be endplayed to give dummy the lead for a pitch of the second losing heart.

Thank you to Jon Cooke for pointing this out to me. (I see from the travellers however that he and David Kendrick defended 5♦ and their opponents made twelve tricks, so sadly he did not have a chance to produce this brilliance at the table)

"Respect" or "A thing of beauty is a joy forever"

Reputations can be a dangerous thing....

Declarer, fresh from his success at the Pachabo,  played this hand well against my partner, Roger Salmon and myself, up to a point. Unfortunately a more mundane line would have worked rather better.

Holding: ♠K9 ♥A1094 ♦K109 ♣A972, North heard the bidding unfoold;

Dealer E

N- S Vulnerable

East	South	West	North
1♣	1♦	Dbl	2♣(1)
Pass	2♦	2♥	3NT(2)
Pass	Pass	Pass(3)

 

(1) Unassuming cue-bid

(2) Practical shot, can almost count nine tricks before dummy is tabled

(3) Disciplined. Shows respect for opponents - there seem to be a lot of points in this pack!

East, a sometime bridge blogger, led ♣K (king for count) and this is what declarer could see.

When declarer ducked the first trick, East followed by ♣Q, his partner following upwards to show an odd number of clubs, while North held off again, East paused for thought and then exited with a small diamond.

Opponents' hand pattern was pretty clear to declarer. West surely had five hearts and four spades for his double followed by his bid of 2H, leaving East with a likely 4-2-3-4 shape. Declarer has eight top tricks via six diamonds and two aces but needs to decide where to go for his ninth trick? A weak player might simply play a spade towards the king (having first cashed his diamonds), a slightly better player might win the diamond switch with dummy's queen and play for the defending heart honours to be split by leading ♥J from table.  However declarer looked more deeply into the hand and saw that he could still make the contract if West had started with ♥KQ and East ♠A. Either of the two earlier lines would fail if that were the case - which seemed a distinct possibility from the bidding.

Winning the diamond in hand he cashed six rounds of diamonds, West following for one round only and then discarding one club, two hearts and two spades, while East discarded two spades and a heart. Declarer could be pretty sure that this was the end situation.

                   ♠K9

                   ♥A

                   ♦None

                   ♣A9

♠??                                 ♠??

♥???                               ♥?

♦None                            ♦None

♣None                            ♣J8

                  ♠654

                  ♥J5

                  ♦None

                  ♣None

Declarer knew that East had started with ♣KQJ and ♦J - so where were his remaining points to justify the opening bid? Did he have the queens in both majors or ♠A?

If the former, he needed simply to lead a spade form the table towards his king; if the latter, he had executed a neat strip squeeze. With chances evenly balanced, he went for the "prettier" option. After  crossing to his ♥A, he cashed ♣A and threw East in by playing ♣9 to lead away from his ♠A for his ninth trick.

Except that I didn't have ♠A.

After winning ♣J, I simply played a spade to my partner's ace. His heart king won the setting trick.

The full deal:

A little unlucky perhaps - but declarer was effectively playing for me to have misdefended. Going back to trick three when I led a passive diamond - had I held neither heart honour, a heart switch from me would have been "automatic" - it could not cost the contract and it might be the only way to get partner in to lead a spade through declarer's presumed ♠K.

As it was, it seemed pretty clear to me that declarer had six diamond tricks and the club ace, together with stops in both hearts and spades. If he had held ♠A and ♥K, he would not have left me on lead to trick three, risking me playing a spade and thus generating three spade tricks to go with our two clubs and HA. True, partner might have held ♥K10, in which case a heart lead would generate tricks for the defence before declarer had established a spade trick by leading from table to his presumed ♠K. But how likely was it that declarer had bid 3NT with a  heart stop of A98x? If declarer had ♥A108x instead, leading a heart might easily result in North South making overtricks.

Moral of the story: while it is frustrating to go down in a contract when you had a chance to make it (due entirely to an opponent's misdefence), this is an occupational hazard. When working out why opponents have played the was they have, show them some respect - sometimes they even deserve it.

PS Just a small throwaway comment. When I was discarding spades on the run of the diamonds, I played the eight followed  by the two, signalling my length. In diffferent cirumstances with a spade holding headed by J108 or J109, I might have played the knave initially, to show the ten and deny the queen. Can you see how dangerous that would been on this hand? Knowing that I did not hold ♠Q, declarer would have been sure to place me with a top heart honour to justify my opening bid. And if I held a top heart honour, my partner must hold the ♠A to justify his bidding. When signalling, it is vital to recognise that you are not only signalling to partner but also to declarer.

Listen to Julian

“Maybe you should play on diamonds earlier?” said Julian, looking non-plussed as he wrote -50 in his score card.

“I think it works better if I just draw trumps” replied Victor, putting the cards, back into the board.

What would you have done?

South	West	North	East
Pass	1♣ (1)	1♦	1♠
Pass	2♠	Pass	4♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

 (1)    Playing a 15-17 opening 1NT

South led the ♦5, which went to the ♦Q and was won by declarer in hand with the ♦A. East continued with ♠K and ♠Q, revealing South to have started with four spades, and then crossed to table with a third spade, North shedding a heart and a diamond.  Next came a heart to the queen and ace. South now led a club - won on the table with ♣A.

Declarer now followed with the ♦10 and North (perhaps, not optimally) won with the ♦K.

This was now the position, the defence needing to take two more tricks to beat the contract.

                ♠None

                ♥98

                ♦96

    ♣KQ

♠None                     ♠J7

♥K7                        ♥10

♦None                     ♦J87

♣J752                      ♣None

                ♠10

                ♥J62

                ♦None

                ♣98

The winning defence is now to play another heart, but North didn’t foresee the possible ending and played a top club to force declarer. After ruffing, declarer drew the last trump, discarding a club from table, while North threw a heart.

At this point, the contract was still makeable via an endplay. North was known to hold two diamonds. If he also held two hearts, there was no hope, but if he had come down to one heart and a club honour (as indeed he had), declarer could extract the last heart by leading the ten of hearts to the ♥K and putting North on lead with a club to lead away from his ♦96 into the ♦J8 sitting over him.

At the table declarer was concerned at the risk of going two off by following this line, so cashed his ♦J prematurely, allowing North to escape the endplay. 

A sequence of errors by both North and East.

How should declarer have played the hand? 

On the opening lead declarer has five spades tricks, and one trick in each of the side suits. He can draw trumps and play on diamonds but, given the known bad diamond split, he is going to have to give up the lead twice in that suit and one further time in hearts. With the only guaranteed entries to his hand being in trumps, there is a real risk of communication difficulties – which could be fatal if the spades fail to split evenly. 

Since South is marked with the diamond shortage and therefore is likely to hold the spade length, declarer can give the defence an impossible choice by not touching trumps and simply returning a diamond at trick two.

Let us say that South discards a heart, if North now beats the ten with his king, he has no good return.  On a further diamond play, declarer can take the marked finesse and to prevent the ♦7 winning the trick, South has to ruff with one of his high spades and be over ruffed by the ♠A – declarer can then simply draw trumps, losing one further diamond and a heart. On any other return, declarer can again draw trumps upon regaining the lead in hearts or clubs, and then give up one more diamond trick.

Nor does it help North to duck the diamond ten. Declarer comes to hand with a trump and leads a third diamond, South having no option but to allow dummy to ruff small, or to shorten his trumps and be over-ruffed with the ♠A. Either way declarer has his ten tricks.

So let us assume that South ruffs the second round of diamonds, and then plays a spade. Declarer can win this in hand and play a third round of diamonds.  South has to ruff to stop dummy eloping with a low trump and is duly over ruffed with the ♠A. 

Declarer now gets back to hand by cashing the ♣A and ruffing a club, and again puts it to South with another diamond. South can ruff this trick, but the ♠6 remains on table to take care of declarer’s thirteenth diamond. 

As the cards lay, a round of trumps at trick two was not fatal, due to the club position giving endplay options. However if you replace one of South’s low clubs with the ♣Q, even one early round of trumps is enough to despatch the contract to the graveyard.

Curiously, on an opening trump lead, the contract is still makeable, but declarer should follow a completely different line. Now he must draw trumps immediately, which forces North to release three vital exit cards in hearts (best, since he cannot afford to let go any diamonds). The ♥10 from hand then catches South in a kind of Morton’s fork – going up with the ♥A gives declarer two tricks, but ducking removes North’s exit card in the suit, and South will never make his ♥A. By now ensuring that South remains off lead and switching attention to diamonds, declarer can always engineer a third trick in that suit for his tenth trick. On the actual lie of the cards, there are a number of other ways for declarer to get home too.

The full deal: