Never a dull moment

Playing with David Kendrick could never be said to be dull. With his ready smile and easy wit, he also combines to create an atmosphere at the table when things happen....

And so it was on this board from the Eastern Counties League match against Norfolk (David in the East seat)

♠A754       ♠KJ2

♥Q72         ♥J

♦AK          ♦Q1087653

♣AK108    ♣72

Now, of course, 5♦ or 6♦ would be too mundane a spot to land with our nine card fit and three top honours.. A shame because there is a nice double squeeze which guarantees the latter contract (with South guarding the clubs and North the hearts, neither can guard spades). Anyway, there must have been a reason for the fates having dealt East the ♠J - and we found it by playing in 4♠.

This is how we got there:

1♣ (1) - 3H   -  Dbl (2)  - Pass

4♠ (3)  - Pass - Pass (4) - Pass

Some comments on the bidding:

(1) We play 4 card majors, so I could have opened 1♠ or even 2NT (20-22). I do not subscribe to the theory that opening 1♣ and then rebidding 1♠ guarantees 5+ cards in the minor, although this is certainly a playable method. Holding relatively poor spades, five quick tricks and no intermediates, I chose to start with 1♣ - also perhaps of lead directional value if we found ourselves defending.

(2) Takeout. Perhaps not everyone's choice since I could have held a weak no trump type of hand, but David is not easily shut out of auctions.

(3) Catching up. No other obvious bid since partner might well have held four spades for his double.

(4) Bidding 5♦ at this point is not really an option with a minimum hand.

North led a small diamond (an obvious singleton) at trick one. Plan the play.

The obvious first line of thought might be to play for spades to be 3-3 with North holding the queen. Perhaps not great odds, but think this through. At trick two you lead ♠A and then a spade to dummy's knave, taking a nerve-racking finesse. If this loses, you might well be going three or four off. Let's assume it wins, what next? You have to unblock the diamonds, so you next play a diamond, ruffed by North with ♠Q. North now plays a heart to his partner's top honour and a heart comes back, forcing you to ruff with dummy's ♠K. You can cash ♦Q, throwing your last heart, but on the next diamond, South ruffs in, and although you can discard a club, you will be left with a further losing club at the end - and the contract will have been defeated by a trick.

So, if the contract can't be made with spades 3-3 and the queen onside*, what if spades are 4-2?

In fact you can afford to lose two spades and a heart in this contract provided that you manage the entries carefully. If North holds the doubleton spade, as is more likely given his pre-empt, you could take the spade finesse at trick two, cash the ♠K (dropping the presumed doubleton queen), cross back to hand with a diamond (North being out of trumps cannot ruff), back to dummy by ruffing a club and then lead diamonds from the top through South. Say South ruffs the fourth round of diamonds with ♠8,  you can simply discard a heart . You are then poised with ♠A7 over South's ♠10 and cannot be denied two more spade tricks and the contract (four spades, a ruff, three diamonds and two clubs).

Even so, that spade finesse at trick two doesn't look very appealing. Playing the hand known to be shorter in length for a particular card is well against the odds, and a losing finesse is again going to see the contract going several off. Is there anything you can do, as declarer, to give yourself an extra chance?

Well, if North has a presumed 2-7-1-3 shape, he might hold both queen and knave of clubs. Do you now see how to combine your chances and maybe make the contract even if it is South who holds the ♠Q?

At tricks two and three, cash the top two clubs! If North plays ♣Q or ♣J on the second trick, you can assume that clubs are indeed favourable. So cash ♠A and lead a spade to the king, eschewing the finesse, cash ♦A, and ruff a club to leave your last club as a winner. You now lead diamonds from the top - East ruffing the fourth round with one of his trump winners, as you discard a second heart. South can draw one of your trumps and cash ♥A, but you can claim the rest with your last trump and a winning ♣10.

If after two rounds of clubs neither ♣Q nor ♣J appear, you may have to revert to playing North for ♠Qx.  That may or may not work, but at least you have given yourself the best possible chance.

The full deal (deal transposed):

* This is of course not strictly true. You can still make this contract if spades are 3-3 with the queen onside by playing back a diamond early on. Two rounds of hearts follow (ruffed in dummy), then ♦Q allowing North (West in diagram) to ruff again. At this point, following one round of trumps, declarer moves to pushing diamonds though the South.(East in diagram) hand and will eventually emerge with ten tricks. This line is however in no way jeopardised by playing off two rounds of clubs at the start. If  South (East) "helpfully" signals four card club length, one may infer that spades are 2-4, but perhaps not otherwise.

Don't spit

Partnering my nemesis of the previous evening, I was pleased with the divergence between our result and that achieved by our teammates at the other table on the following deal.

Picking up an unremarkable, ♠Q865 ♥AJ ♦K103 ♣10532, as West, my partner and I played no role in the auction:

North	South
	Pass
1♦	1♥
1♠	1NT
Pass

With a choice of unattractive leads, I opted for the ♣5 and dummy was faced. I could now see:

	♠K1092
	♥52
	♦AJ765
	♣K4
♠Q865
♥AJ
♦K103
♣10532

Declarer played low from the table and partner played ♣J, won by declarer with the queen. The ♦9 was led towards the table at trick two, and I had to decide what to play.

Were I to play small, declarer would almost certainly run the nine to partner's presumed queen. My K10 would then be exposed to a simple finesse on the next round, allowing her to make four diamond tricks with great ease.

I could of course cover the nine with the ten, relying on partner to hold ♦8, but there is a better solution: rise with the king. At worst, this gives declarer an awkward guess on the next round - if she  started life with nine-eight, she would have to decide whether I had split my diamond honours from KQx, or whether the finesse against the ten was working all the way along. However playing the king also has the great merit of disrupting communications between the hands.

Declarer should probably have ducked but she won with ♦A and thinking perhaps that I had KQ bare of diamonds, led a second diamond towards her eight and my ten.

Continuing with a second club, I was pleased to see partner take dummy's queen with the ace, and return a low heart. This was good defence: there was no need to cash our clubs yet and provide declarer with information regarding distribution of our hands.

I won declarer's ♥10 with the ♥J and had a further choice to make. Declarer had started life with ♣Q and most likely one heart honour. I could just cash my heart ace and our two club tricks, for it seemed that declarer had started life with only three. Partner would win the fourth club and then what? She could cash the diamond queen, of course, but it wasn't clear whether we we would have any more tricks, for declarer surely had ♠A. However I wondered whether, if declarer was missing the ♠J, I might lay a little trap for her, so I exited with ♠Q.

Perhaps declarer should have seen through this ruse and played for split spade honours - but since we had not revealed much about the heart position nor our honours nor our distribution, she was still scrabbling for tricks, and going up with ♠K from table could result in the suit being blocked, if my partner held Jxx, for example. Meanwhile there was the Scylla tempting her to make four spade tricks if I had started with QJx in the suit - after all, who leads an unsupported queen?

It all developed as the gods had foretold. Declarer won with the spade ace in hand and took the finesse of the ten on the way back, partner gratefully winning with the knave and playing an awkward ♥9 through.

Declarer got this one right and played low, and I won perforce with my ♥A. We now cashed our remaining club, heart and diamond winners, but it left North - South with just four tricks.

Declarer gave me one of the filthiest looks I have received for some time and spat " How did you know that your partner had the ♠J?". 

The full deal:

Plus 150 at our table added handily to the +120 which our team-mates achieved at the other table, where the contract and opening lead were the same, but West did not rise with the ♦K when the ♦9 was led towards the table.

Cambridge Swiss Pairs (1)

Every now and then a deal seems comes up - perhaps where one achieved a less than satisfactory result -  it defies easy analysis and you are tormented working out whether you played it optimally, or whether you should have done better.

Such a deal came up in the first of the two-session Cambridge Club Swiss Pairs event this week. In our third match, against Paul Barden and Jon Cooke, our most highly ranked opponents and very real contenders for the competition, we reached 3NT via the auction below and received the opening lead of ♠4. Why not take the place of declarer?

Dealer E		♠A83
Vul:  E- W		♥KQ7
		♦AQ
		♣AK876
				East	South	West	North
				Pass	Pass	Pass	2NT (1)
		♠K		Pass	3♣ (2)	Pass	3NT (3)
		♥9632		Pass	Pass	Pass
		♦K9872
		♣Q104

 
(1) 20-22
(2) Stayman, enquiring for five card majors
(3) No four or five card major

Winning in dummy, the next hand following with ♠J, you consider your options. The contract and lead seem normal enough: some might venture to six clubs, but that faces its own share of options. You have eight top tricks and can securely play for a ninth in hearts. If everything goes your way, you might end up with twelve tricks (or just possibly thirteen if you lead a heart to hand, and the hand with the ace ducks: an unlikely prospect against this opposition). The shortage of entries to dummy suggests that one should test diamonds before clubs, and that if you are going to lead a heart towards hand, the time to do it is at trick two.

With this in mind,and nothing else to go on, you lead a heart to your king, which is taken by the ace and a second spade, the deuce, comes back at trick three, you throw a heart from dummy and West plays the nine. Your opponents are playing fourth best leads, so there is nothing to be gained by ducking this, and you win the trick with ♠A. It seems normal to continue with diamonds, so you play ♦A, the defender on your left, East, playing ♦10.  Any hopes of a favourable split in that suit are dashed when you continue with ♦Q - on which he now discards a heart.

With the spades now wide open, there is no point in overtaking the diamond, so you now play a club from hand, East following with the deuce. Do you finesse the ten or rise with ♣Q? If you get this decision right, you will make five club tricks and eleven tricks in all, get it wrong and you may only make eight tricks in your no trump contract in spite of your combined 30-count. The competition may well hang on your choice of card.

To be continued........