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Interesting Play Hands / An Instructive Hand for Assumptions & Counting
« on: January 04, 2022, 08:36:15 PM »
Hi All,
This was a very instructive hand I came up against earlier today while playing with Servet.
You are South at Green vs Red and end up in 3NT after the following auction:
North
982
A95
94
AJ1074
South
K4
QJ7
A102
KQ985
Bidding:
North East South West
No 1 1NT No
3NT All Pass
Yes, my 1NT was a little pushy, but Servet's 3NT was bang on.
West led the Jack which did not look too promising for the Diamonds splitting 4-4. That won the first trick, East's King took the second round and East then continued the 7 on the 3rd round, West following with the 3 and then the 6, while I discarded a Spade from Dummy on the 3rd round. How do you take stock of the hand? At first sight it looks fairly hopeless as Opps will almost certainly make 3 Diamonds, a Spade and a Heart.
Well firstly, you have to make the assumption that the Diamonds really are 4-4, because on the bidding East surely has the Ace and King to go along with the KQ. If East has 5-card Diamonds you are definitely off. In retrospect the best tactic here is to play a Club to the 10 and lead a Spade, because East is more likely to hold up their Ace (which is essential for you) if you play a Spade early on.
I decided to put them under a little pressure first, however, and get a better count on the hand so I played 4 rounds of Clubs ending in Dummy, to which West played 2 Clubs and 2 Hearts and East played 1 Club, 2 Hearts and a Spade.
East had to be 4441 and West 4342 to start with if our assumption about the Diamonds is correct. Now I played a Spade and went up with the King with East played low. Now I had him: I cashed my 5th round of Clubs (East throwing a Spade) and then exited with a Spade to endplay him. He could take his Queen, but then had to lead away from Kx.
A simple enough endplay but easy to miss if you're not counting the hand. Once you make the assumption that the 's have to be 4-4 that really limits the number of HCP that West can have when they do not bid 2 with 4-card support for partner, which 100% rules out them having the King. When they show up with the Jack at trick 1, the most they can have is the Jack or possibly the Queen of Spades. Also, once East shows up with only 1 Club, they have to be exactly 4441 if you assumption about the Diamonds is correct or they would have opened a 5-card Major. Once you have that straight it's easy to count their discards and even drop their King if they get tricky and blank it in order to keep 3 Spades.
A better player than the East I faced might well have discarded 3 small Hearts and only a single Spade on the last Club to try to fool you into taking the finesse. They would certainly have spotted the endplay coming a mile away and gone up with the Ace on the first Spade trick, cashing the Queen and then exiting with a Spade to wait for their trick. You have to give Opps a chance to go wrong when the situation seems hopeless, though.
The full hand: https://tinyurl.com/yyztts6n
This was a very instructive hand I came up against earlier today while playing with Servet.
You are South at Green vs Red and end up in 3NT after the following auction:
North
982
A95
94
AJ1074
South
K4
QJ7
A102
KQ985
Bidding:
North East South West
No 1 1NT No
3NT All Pass
Yes, my 1NT was a little pushy, but Servet's 3NT was bang on.
West led the Jack which did not look too promising for the Diamonds splitting 4-4. That won the first trick, East's King took the second round and East then continued the 7 on the 3rd round, West following with the 3 and then the 6, while I discarded a Spade from Dummy on the 3rd round. How do you take stock of the hand? At first sight it looks fairly hopeless as Opps will almost certainly make 3 Diamonds, a Spade and a Heart.
Well firstly, you have to make the assumption that the Diamonds really are 4-4, because on the bidding East surely has the Ace and King to go along with the KQ. If East has 5-card Diamonds you are definitely off. In retrospect the best tactic here is to play a Club to the 10 and lead a Spade, because East is more likely to hold up their Ace (which is essential for you) if you play a Spade early on.
I decided to put them under a little pressure first, however, and get a better count on the hand so I played 4 rounds of Clubs ending in Dummy, to which West played 2 Clubs and 2 Hearts and East played 1 Club, 2 Hearts and a Spade.
East had to be 4441 and West 4342 to start with if our assumption about the Diamonds is correct. Now I played a Spade and went up with the King with East played low. Now I had him: I cashed my 5th round of Clubs (East throwing a Spade) and then exited with a Spade to endplay him. He could take his Queen, but then had to lead away from Kx.
A simple enough endplay but easy to miss if you're not counting the hand. Once you make the assumption that the 's have to be 4-4 that really limits the number of HCP that West can have when they do not bid 2 with 4-card support for partner, which 100% rules out them having the King. When they show up with the Jack at trick 1, the most they can have is the Jack or possibly the Queen of Spades. Also, once East shows up with only 1 Club, they have to be exactly 4441 if you assumption about the Diamonds is correct or they would have opened a 5-card Major. Once you have that straight it's easy to count their discards and even drop their King if they get tricky and blank it in order to keep 3 Spades.
A better player than the East I faced might well have discarded 3 small Hearts and only a single Spade on the last Club to try to fool you into taking the finesse. They would certainly have spotted the endplay coming a mile away and gone up with the Ace on the first Spade trick, cashing the Queen and then exiting with a Spade to wait for their trick. You have to give Opps a chance to go wrong when the situation seems hopeless, though.
The full hand: https://tinyurl.com/yyztts6n