February 5, 2014

There was not a lot of action in the match Monday night.  There were only three significant swings.  I’ll focus on two of those.  The first was a six IMP swing, which could have been rescued by better defense.  Take West’s seat defending 1NT:

              
With East-West vulnerable, the bidding was:

 
Leading from the West hand is quite unappealing.  I am not leading a heart. The spade eight is possible, but partner had a chance to bid spades, and didn’t, so that rates to be their suit.  That leaves a minor.   I hate leading from AQxx in a suit that I bid, and partner couldn’t raise, but here, my diamond bid was artificial, so partner could have length in diamonds.    A diamond may be as good as anything.  I’d toss a coin and lead a minor suit.  Our West chose the diamond five. 

North won with the jack, as partner played the seven, typically upside down count when the jack wins in dummy.  North continued with the diamond four, to the eight, ten, and your queen.  Now what?

South suggested around 6 to 10 points.  Dummy has 10, and I have 13.  That leaves partner with around 7-11 high card points, and yet partner passed over one heart.  Certainly partner, with values and four or more spades, would have bid over one heart.  So South has four spades, along with K109xx in diamonds.  As I suspected on opening lead, spades is not our suit.  We will need tricks from hearts and clubs.  I would shift to a low club here, hoping that partner has the club queen, with length, and an entry. 

If South has the club queen, then clubs must be attacked from partner’s side.  If could easily be right to attack hearts, not clubs, but I find that K108 in dummy a bit daunting.   If you attack hearts, play the heart five, hoping for the ace and nine with partner, and for declarer to misguess, and not stick in the ten.  Here was the full hand:

   
A low club was the killer – setting up partner’s suit, and keeping an entry for a heart play.  In practice, ace of clubs and a club would likely set the contract as well.  At the table, West shifted to the spade eight, and South ended up with eight tricks.

At the other table, the auction started similarly – although the one diamond opening bid was natural.  Over one heart, East bid 1NT and bought the contract, so both sides declared one notrump.  Is that a good idea?

In theory, no.  One notrump is often a race to seven tricks, and the defenders, with the first blow on opening lead, should win that race.  Double-dummy, when both sides declare one notrump, at least one contract is set, and often both.  However, defenders don’t lead or play double-dummy.  It is much easier to win your tricks when you can see all of your assets.  Here, both tables wrapped up +120, for six IMPs.  That should, theoretically, never happen, but it is a very common result. 

     Get that notrump in before they do!

East should bid one notrump over one heart.  The timid pass dangled six IMPs in front of the opponents.  A club shift by partner would salvage the hand, but the declarer in the other room had a much easier time tackling clubs. 

Another six IMPs swing came on the last board, when a light opening bid at one table led to a marginal one notrump contract for East-West, while North-South at our table played in an easy two diamonds.  Again, one notrump could have been set, but wasn’t.  Six more IMPs to the side that bid 1NT first. 

The biggest swing came on board nine, when bad defense let a trick slip away at the other table.  Still, …

Try this hand as declarer:

 
Vulnerable against not, you arrive in four hearts on this auction:

      
West starts with the diamond ace, diamond king, and a third diamond to South’s queen.  You ruff, of course.  Plan the play.

Assuming trumps aren’t five-oh, the contract will come down to the spade suit.  So, big question:  Who has the ace of spades? 

East.  West, who passed originally, has shown up with the diamond ace and king.  Not many players pass with ace,king, ace.  No Juniors pass such hands!  (In fact, East-West play Precision, and open 1D on any balanced 11.)

So, we need West to hold the spade queen.  Is there any hope if the spade queen is offside?

Not really, but I would lead the spade seven to the jack at trick four.  If it loses to the queen, I’d win the club or heart return on dummy and try the spade two next.  On a very good day, East will duck and my eight will win!

The full hand:

 

With trumps four-one, my little deception might lead to down two, or it might lead to a red-faced East and +620.  Is it worth going down two trying to be tricky?  Absolutely!  If you look for sneaky ways to steal tricks, then you will wind up making hopeless contracts.  Sometimes the tricks work, and other times the opponents are worried that you are up to something clever, and misdefend when you are just making ordinary plays.    A sneaky reputation is worth a bundle of IMPs. 

At the table, our South drew trumps and played a spade to the king, which was poor, but a spade to the jack would fare no better.