April 14, 2014 – 33 Points

As you know, I like to focus on questions of card play, which is a good thing, because I could really go crazy about some of Monday’s bidding.  Twice we held a nine count, two aces and a jack, nonvulnerable, opposite a 1NT opening.  What is that worth?  I usually invite with nine, particularly white.  But not all nines are equivalent.  These were the two hands in question:

and

The first hand, 4-3-3-3 with no nines or tens, is a poor holding, and is not really worth nine points.  This is close.  I would invite, but passing could be best.  Our trooper bid 3NT.  Game was awful, but the cards were as friendly as could be, and nine tricks were cold. 

The other hand, with great spot cards and a five card suit is worth closer to eleven points, rather than nine.  This is a 3NT bid.  Our player invited.  Right again – game could always be set.  Ah well.  That’s why I teach and you play.

Then there was our slam bidding.  Ouch.  6NT tried on a balanced 18 count facing a flat 13.  That had no play, and needed luck to get out for down one.  The old “33 point” rule for balanced slams is a pretty good guideline.  Use it.  This slam, with 31 points, rated to be poor.  It was, in fact, hopeless, but maybe better than the other slam.  23 combined points, a trump suit of AQ82 against 10653, off another ace, and needing at least two other finesses.  One of the opponents was mean enough to double this slam.  What?  How dare you!  I redouble!  So our pair paid out -600 the hard way. 

There were two fascinating play problems, a declarer play test, and a tough defensive hand.  Let’s look at those.  First off:

With both sides vulnerable, South dealt and opened two spades:

West leads the heart ace, and East plays the two, encouraging.  Next comes the heart nine to the queen, and the seven of hearts.  This is ominous.  Sure enough, you trump with the eight, and West over-ruffs with the queen.  Plan the play.

While you think about that, I have two questions for you to ponder:

 

1.  Who has the club king?
2. Who has the spade jack?

Well, East played back the heart seven, from K75, a suit preference for diamonds, and West dutifully shifted to a diamond.  So the club king is likely onside.  We know little about the trumps, but Restricted Choice applies here.  With the queen and jack, West might over-ruff with either card.  That makes East more likely than West to hold the spade jack.  So, let’s tentatively give West the club king and East the spade jack.  Now what?

The simplest line is to win, cash the spade king, play a diamond back to hand, and lay down the spade ace.  This makes the hand if the spade jack is now doubleton, without any club finesse.  That is a pretty reasonable line.  Maybe the trumps will look like this:

 
Does that seem likely?

Probably not.  With Qxxx in trumps, West always had a trump winner, and gained nothing by over-ruffing.  In fact, over-ruffing would cost the contract if this were the trump layout:

 

Discarding, rather than ruffing would win a second trump trick.  That is good, and normal defense, so I don’t believe that East started with a doubleton jack of trumps. 

Can we trump coup East out of something like Jxx in trumps?

Yes, but only if East started with two diamonds, and three clubs, not the other way around.  Suppose this were the full hand:

We can land the contract on this layout by continuing diamonds, trumping the third round.  Then club queen, club to the jack, to leave:

Lead the diamond ten now.  East will probably discard, as do we.  Ruff the club ace next, trump to dummy.  Very pretty. 

Could we trump coup East out of Jxxx in trumps?  Maybe, but that is a lot harder, and would require trumping the heart jack early, a line that would cost the contract in the layout above.  So that is not worth pursuing, but you can follow a successful (double-dummy) line of play here:

My vote:  Continue diamonds and hope to coup out Jxx of trumps on your right. 

This line should not work at the table, for this was full hand:

 

The spade jack was dropping.  Our declarer won the diamond, crossed to the spade king, and played high diamonds.  East ruffed, a poor defense, and one which gave away the show.  Certainly, if the trumps were solid, South would win the second diamond and claim, so West was marked with the vulnerable spade jack.  Did South cash the spade ace and claim?  No, South played a club to the ten and led another high diamond.  East trumped yet again, and South over-ruffed.  There was only one trump out, so it was finally time to claim, but South wasn’t counting, and played another club to dummy, and had to lose a trick to the spade jack. 

Repeat after me:  COUNT, COUNT, COUNT! 

My trump coup line should fail, but wouldn’t if East decided to trump the third diamond. 

Next up, take East’s seat defending 3NT:

 

With East-West vulnerable, and East the dealer, the auction went:

  
Partner leads the diamond three to your ace, and South’s jack.  Plan the defense.

While you are at it, tell me South’s exact hand!

So, what do we know?  South has shown four spades, but rates to have only four, or South might bid three spades on the way to game.  Likewise South denied four hearts.  From the lead, South appears to have only two diamonds, and so must have at least four clubs, but there are only four clubs missing, so South has all of those.  South’s shape – 4-3-2-4. 

South showed 16 or 17 points in the auction, leaving room for four or five with partner.  Give partner, say, the diamond queen, and partner will hold one more card, in spades or hearts.  The full hand will look something like this:

  
or

We won’t beat the first hand, unless South misguesses clubs and starts with the queen.  Our defense in that layout won’t matter, so assume the hand looks like the second exhibit.

Continuing diamonds sets up our fourth trick, but not our fifth.  We need a heart trick to set this hand.  Look what happens if we shift to hearts.  If South wins the ace, we will take three heart tricks, a diamond and a club.  If South ducks, partner can shift back to diamonds, and we win a club, heart, and three diamonds.

 
Since we want partner to shift back to diamonds, we should shift to the heart eight at trick two. 

This is a very common theme on defense – when you can see four and only four tricks against 3NT, look to attack a different suit first.  At the table, partner did hold the heart king, and the ten as well, so a heart opening lead, or heart shift would set the hand.  Our East continued diamonds, but South started clubs with the queen, slightly anti-percentage, and fatal here.