September 16, 2013 – Planning Ahead

The play was quite good on Sunday.  Two contracts made that could have been set.  On one, the defense had five winners set up against three no-trump but let one slip away.  The other was cold after the opening lead, so let’s start with that problem. 

With both sides vulnerable, you pick up

and open one diamond.  The auction continues:

What do you lead?

We expect dummy to be at least five-five in the majors.  If partner has neither minor ace, then our prospects are quite poor.  We will almost certainly need a couple of spade tricks to set the hand, and a good start in that direction is to lead our singleton, and collect a ruff.  If, on the other hand, partner has an ace, then we likely have three easy tricks.  The fourth also rates to come in spades.  We can lead our singleton, win the trump ace, put partner in, get a ruff, and our minor suit king.

I am a big fan of singleton leads, particularly when I hold a trump entry.  At the table, our East led a diamond, and the hand could no longer be set. 

Suppose you lead your singleton spade and see this dummy:

         
North plays low on the spade, and partner’s nine loses to the queen.  South leads the trump two next.  How do you defend?

This is easy.  You will win the trump ace, put partner in with the appropriate ace, get your ruff, and … 

Which ace?

If South has the diamond ace, our chances aren’t very hopeful.  Projecting out the play, we put partner in, get our ruff, and then?  We can’t lead a diamond.  Leading a club might set up declarer’s queen for a diamond discard, so partner will need very good clubs, and even then, the diamonds might go away on dummy’s spades. 

If, instead, partner has the diamond ace, the set is easy.  So, a diamond looks best.
Can partner help us out here?

Maybe.  Partner played the spade nine at trick one.  That play might have been forced, from, say J9xx.  Likewise, partner can give us a suit-preference signal in trumps at trick two, assuming partner has more than one trump.  Otherwise that play will also be forced.

 
Still, the spade nine could have been from a holding like 987x or J98x, so partner will often be signaling for a diamond.  This was the full hand:

   
Partner should play the heart nine to help us, and a diamond shift sets the hand.

My first play problem was board 4, the biggest swing of the night.  Our table bid to an excellent six diamond contract, on

Six diamonds made easily on a friendly heart lead.  The other table tried six notrump, which failed quickly.  Here was our auction:

The final contract was great, but I don’t like the bidding much.  If I read your system correctly, North opens one club on any balanced hand outside a notrump range, and opens one diamond with unbalanced hands, and four or more diamonds.  This auction suggested either a weak notrump with four diamonds, or an unbalanced hand with four diamonds, and four or five clubs.  The South hand isn’t worth inviting a slam opposite any weak notrump, so four diamonds was too much.  South needs to know the nature of the North hand before, and should probe first.

I much prefer a one diamond opening with the North hand.  That suggests the nature of the hand quickly, particularly in this system.

Here is my problem for you.  How should you play six diamonds on the lead of the trump ten?

Trumping two spades in dummy will bring us up to eleven winners – four trumps, three spades, three hearts, and a club.  Either hearts or clubs might provide the twelfth trick.  A natural line of play is this:
Win the trump in hand and lead a club to the king.  Say it loses to the ace, and a trump comes back.  Win that in dummy, spade ace, spade ruff, heart ace, spade ruff, heart to hand, draw the last trump.  Then we can test hearts, and, if those don’t work, trump the last heart and try a club finesse for the jack.  This seems to give us plenty of options, but there is one big flaw.  What is that?

Simple, our club play will not lose to the ace.  The club king will hold, wherever the ace may lie.  Project out the play from there.  Spade ace, spade ruff, heart, spade, high trump, heart, draw the last trump. 

This will leave(you can follow the play to this point using the next button):

   
Now what?  If we play a club, we might find the club ace is off with hearts splitting.  Perhaps this was the full hand:

   
Okay, so should we try hearts first?  What if this is the full hand:

 
The ending would now be

  
When we lead the heart ten, West will discard a club, and throw the club jack when we trump back to hand, winning the last two tricks with the club  ace and a spade.

 
We do better by combining these two options – hearts run or the club jack is onside.  Declarer should play as follows:

Win the opening lead in dummy with the ace, trump a spade, and lead the diamond queen.  If East shows out, I’ll have to win in dummy and try clubs before drawing trumps. If East follows, overtake (hoping that West didn’t lead a singleton trump ten), trump another spade, heart to hand, and draw the last trump.  This will leave (again, use the next button):

  
Now, play the heart ten to the queen, and the heart seven back to the king.  If the hearts are up, play a club to the king and claim.  If not, try a club to the ten. 

This is a very tricky and instructive hand.  Declarer must mentally follow the play quite a long way to see the potential dangers.  It is impossible to get this one right without planning ahead. 

My final exhibit was board 9, where our table got to four hearts after a simple auction:  With East-West vulnerable, the bidding went:

West led the spade eight, third best from an even number or low from an odd number.  East plays the jack and you win your ace.  Plan ahead!

I’ll come back to this, but first, let’s follow the play as it went at the table.

Our declarer cashed the club ace next, then a high spade, and trumped a spade with the ten (as West played spade four, spade ten), in case spades were 6-2.  When East followed, declarer threw a diamond on the club king, and took a trump finesse.  West won the king and played the spade queen, trumped in hand.  Declarer now tried the trump ace, dropping the jack from West, and a trump to East’s nine, throwing two  more diamonds from the table.  This left:

East gets out a low club, and you trump, with West following.  It is time to guess the diamonds.  Do you play for the queen onside, or the ace?
What do you know?  West started with Q1084 KJ in the majors, and appears to have the club queen, so West held a hand like

I would double one heart holding the diamond ace, wouldn’t you?  Since West passed, it must be better to play West for the diamond queen, and our declarer got it right.  Well read!  Here was the full hand:

Let’s back this up a bit.  When West won the trump king, the cards were fairly well marked.  Partner needed a trump trick to set the hand, and South would have to misguess diamonds.  West should have played a diamond at that point, forcing declarer to make the guess without the extra information available to our hero. 

Take it back even further.  South shouldn’t have cashed the club ace.  Suppose declarer had trumped the spade immediately, and finessed in hearts.  If hearts were friendly, you might lose two diamond tricks.  In practice, the finesse will lose, and you would need the diamond queen onside if West finds a diamond shift.  Is that shift so obvious now?  No.  In practice, West would play another spade, to leave:

   
Now trump ace, club ace, trump, and East is endplayed.  No diamond guess needed!