I know I sometimes harp on about people going off in stone cold contracts when  they didn't play the safe line to make exactly and instead either misplayed it or played for an overtrick. Sometimes, however, you find that you've potentially underbid a hand, not in the sense that you've missed a game or a slam, but in the sense that you can realistically expect to make more than one overtrick. Take this hand, for example.

Game All, Dealer West. You are North

North
  AK8
  A82
  732
  AQ32

RHO passes and you open 1 . With no opposition bidding the OCP auction proceeds:

1 - 1
1NT⁽¹⁾ - 2 ⁽²⁾
3NT⁽³⁾ - All Pass

(1) Low Beta
(2) 5 Controls
(3) You may be surprised, but I don't disagree with Eszter's bid here. We might have all 12 Controls, but she has no intermediates herself. She knows I have the K , AK and K , but if I don't have much to add to that, then the prospects for significantly more than 9 tricks are remote. What I do think she should try is 2NT HoC, just in case the bidding goes

1 - 1
1NT - 2
2NT - 3
3NT - ??

Over 3 , Eszter might even bid 6 in the sure knowledge that either I am 2335 or 4432, because with 3334 myself I would bid 3NT or 4NT over 2NT. Over the sequence shown, however, if I am sat there with a semi-balanced 5-card Clubs, I will realise at this point that Eszter is almost certainly 3334 (because she bid 2NT but hasn't shown another suit over 3 ) Even if I am 4432 with Clubs (and some extras), I will still realise that we have a decent Club fit and slam values, and push on in Clubs.

In practice, I passed 3NT (nothing I can really do over that - Give Eszter KQx, Qxx, Qxx, AQJx and she'd have bid the same way). East led the 5 and this is what Eszter could see:

South (Dummy)
  J1075
  K109
  AKJ5
  K6

North
  AK8
  A82
  732
  AQ52

9 tricks on top (2 , 2 , 2 and 3 ) without taking any finesses or developing any additional tricks. On the other hand, if Diamonds are 3-3, there are 3 tricks there (4 if the Queen is onside), and a third (or even fourth) Spade trick is easily established by taking the finesse or simple playing Ace King and another towards Dummy's J10.

On the opening lead, Eszter inserted Dummy's 9 and West contributed the Queen, taken by Declarer's Ace. What do you make of that trick? Well it may be unfashionable these days to think about Rule of 11, but if a lead looks like it might be a 4th highest lead, I feel it is sometimes worth thinking of the implications if it is. Eszter can see the AK1098 between her hand and Dummy and West has played the Queen. 5 from 11 = 6, so if the 5 is 4th highest, then West cannot have the Jack.

Anyway, enough about the Hearts for now: Eszter tried the Diamond finesse at trick 2, Dummy's Jack losing to West's Queen. West switched to the 8 , and now Eszter started to get into a bit of a pickle. She won this trick with the Queen in her hand (blocking the suit), played a Diamond to the Ace (everyone followed) and then took the Spade finesse, losing to East's Queen. No problem taking the Spade finesse, but if she needed to be in Dummy to do that, why not simple win the Club switch with the King in Dummy in the first place rather than blocking the suit?

East now fired back the 7 . If were're into taking finesses today, this is one I would always take, for the reasons given above. Eszter, though, went up with Dummy's King (West showed out) and (without unblocking the Clubs) cashed the top 2 Spades in her hand, in the process getting the bad news that East had started with Qx when they discarded the 9 on the 3rd Spade. Worst of all, the position is now

South (Dummy)
  10
  10
  K5
  K

North
  -
  8
  7
  A52

...and she is in her hand after taking only 6 tricks. If she cashes the Ace of Clubs, it crashes with the King. She can enjoy 2 Diamonds, the 10 and the King of Clubs, but cannot now make the Ace of Clubs separately, because she has no way back to hand. In fact it got worse, because she crossed to the K , cashed the 10 , and then orphaned the [good] 5 by overtaking the K with the Ace and had to concede the last 2 tricks for +600, the exact 9 tricks she started out with if she'd taken no finesses and not developed anything.

Actually, 13 tricks are fairly simple (as the cards lie) on this hand if you get the Majors right: Win the opening trick with the Ace in hand, lay down the AK of Spades, When the Queen falls, take the Heart finesse against East's Jack (or you can even do that before tackling the Spades), cash the J10 , K and AK . Everyone has to come down to 4 cards:

South (Dummy)
  -
  -
  J5
  K6

North
  -
 
 
  AQ52

You know by this point that West started out with the singleton Q and 4 small Spades so they have 8 cards between the Minors. That makes it a good bet that West has the Club length. If they also have the Q (which is certain if they only have 4-card Clubs), they are now squeezed, because they cannot retain the Q and 4 Clubs. This may sound fanciful, but, as I said at the start, playing Ace, King and another Spade is just as good a method of making 1 extra Spade trick as taking the finesse. Taking the finesse only produces 2 extra tricks when the Spades are 3-3, or West has Qx, covers the Jack,  and you're prepared to take a 3rd round finesse against East's remaining 9x. Playing out the AK always produces 3 tricks and produces 4 whenever either defender started with Qx.

Once we know East started with 6 Hearts and only 5 cards in the Minors, and that West has 8 Minor suit cards, cashing the AK and going for the squeeze Minor squeeze against West  is an odds on proposition. Even if East does turn up with the Queen of Diamonds, you're still making 12 tricks.

PLANNING is one of the key facets of Declarer play. Sometimes you might need to temporarily block a suit, but you should always have a plan for unblocking it when you do so. Similarly, if a lead looks, feels and smells like 4th highest, and the play to the first trick seems to confirm it, it's wise to treat it as 4th highest in later play. Here there were effectively no "bid" or "unbid" suits, and so it's highly likely that the opening lead against 3NT will be from East's longest and strongest suit.


+600 was worth 3 IMPs. +690 was worth 5 and +720 would have been worth nearly 6.


Lots of Pairs were in slams, going off (nobody listens to me!) and 3NT making would have been worth a better score except for one idiot East who doubled 3NT holding Qx, Jxxxxx, xxx, xx, promptly got redoubled, and Declarer make 12 tricks for +2200!!!! Not a single pair, amazingly, bid and made 6NT, despite 2 of them getting a lead of a 4th highest Heart. Tut Tut!

As ever, counting the hand proved to crucial on this deal with Eszter yesterday:

Game All, Dealer North. You are South, holding

South
xx
K73
AKJ1073
A3

The bidding goes:

North      East       South      West
No           3 ⁽¹⁾   3           3
4          No         ??
⁽¹⁾ Pre-emptive

What now?

.
.
.

I felt that Partner being a passed hand, it was unlikely we had 11 tricks  available to us here. Mine is a nice hand, but it's not that nice. I have no shape and felt it would be punishing Partner's 4 bid to try for one more.

West led the AK of Spades and Partner put down

North
Q3
A102
Q98
Q10975

South
xx
K73
AKJ1073
A3

On the two top Spades everyone followed, and West now switched to the 4 . How do view your prospects? Initially it doesn't look particularly good: West is obviously void in Clubs. West might have led the 4 from Q984 or similar, in which case you can eliminate the Heart loser by playing small from dummy at trick 2 and East will have to play their honour to beat your 7 and now you can take a 2nd-round finesse against the Queen in West's hand.

The downside to playing small from Dummy at trick 3 is when West has led from QJxx, in which case your only chance for your 10th trick has just disappeared.

The only glimmer of hope is that you can see the 3 and 2 of Hearts, which suggests West might have led from a 4-card suit. If that's the case, then that almost certainly means the Diamonds are 2-2 (West will have 7 Spades, 4 Hearts, no Clubs and therefore 2 Diamonds, and East will have 2 Spades, 3 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 6 Clubs). If that is the case, it doesn't matter who has what Hearts (read on).

I played small from Dummy and took East's Jack with my King. Two top trumps revealed the 2-2 split and now I knew I was home: I knew for certain that West had no Clubs and East had started with 3 Hearts. I played the Ace of Hearts and then exited with the 10 , coming down to this position:

North
-
-
Q
Q10975

South
-
-
AKJ7
A3

It doesn't matter who wins the 3rd round of Hearts. If West wins it he will have only Major suit cards left, any of which will give me the ruff-'n'-discard I need to rid myself of the Club loser. If East, on the other hand turns up with the 3rd Heart trick, they will only have Clubs left and will have to lead away from their KJ8xxx.

There is another sure-fire way to play this hand, which I held in reserve in case the Diamonds were not 2-2: As long as you preserve Dummy's Ace of Hearts allow yourself to win the 3rd round of Diamonds in Dummy, you can lead Dummy's Queen of Clubs. This forces the King from East and you simply win the Ace and concede a trick to East's Jack and have a good Club in Dummy left to take care of your Heart loser.

...and so it proved: East won the 3rd Heart and led the Jack of Clubs, but I just let it run around to Dummy's Queen. 10 tricks. Perhaps surprisingly, this turned out to be the par score of -0-07 IMP, because lots of West fell in love with their hand and were competing to the 4-level (and beyond) in Spades and going for -200 or -500. One lucky NS Pair even bid 1NT-3NT on the hand (no opposition bidding) and received the lucky lead of...  ...The Jack of Spades! 10 tricks, thank you  -  NEXT!

Eszter defended really well on this hand earlier today: Opps are in a contract of 5 (The bidding went 1 - 5 ). They're not vulnerable and you are, and you have led the 4 and this is what you can see:

Dummy
  72
  54
  A965
  AQJ105
                   You
                    Q10643
                    AQ86
                    J842
                    -

On the opening trick, Declarer took my Jack of Spades with their Ace, and led the Queen of Diamonds which held the trick, Partner (me) contributing the 10. Declarer erred badly, by continuing with a small Diamond to Dummy's Ace, on which I discarded the 10 (the main purpose of which was to convey to Eszter that I didn't have a Heart honour - The Spade position was fairly clear, since Eszter wouldn't underlead the Ace, and I certainly didn't want to suggest a Club).

Declarer now took the King of Spades and ruffed a Spade in Dummy. Now a 3rd round of Diamonds to Declarer's King left your Jack the boss trump. Declarer now led a Club to Dummy's Ace and a Club back to their King, on which Eszter discarded 2 Hearts. A third Club followed and Eszter still didn't ruff. Only on the 4th round of Clubs did she ruff, knowing that Declarer was now cut off from the all-important 5th Club in Dummy, because he'd started out with AKx, ??, KQ73, Kxxx. Eszter now exited with the Queen of Spades and Declarer was endplayed. If they ruffed, she then had to lead away from Kx and if they discarded a Heart, Eszter could simply cash the Ace of Hearts for the setting trick.

Note that even if she was unsure exactly how many Clubs Declarer had started with, it's completely safe for Eszter to wait until the 4th round before ruffing. Declarer is known to have started with 3 Spades and 4 Diamonds. If they only started with 3 Clubs, then they must have 3-card Hearts and can only discard one of those 3 cards on the 4th Club. If they only started with 2 Clubs, then they must have 4-card Hearts. If they started with 4 Clubs, then they only have 2 Hearts, but never get the opportunity to discard anything if you ruff the 4th Club. Ruffing too early is fatal, however, if Declarer still has a Club left in their hand. You can take your Jack of Diamonds, but Declarer will always be able to discard all but one of their Hearts on the long Clubs if you don't cash the Ace first.

No question, Declarer completely stuffed this contract, which is cold for 11 tricks. With KQ73 opposite A9xx in the Diamond suit, consider the possibilities: If the Diamonds are 3-2 it makes no difference how you play the suit. If South has J108x, there's nothing you can do. What you can cater for, especially when RHO drops the 10 on the first round of the suit, is LHO having started with J8xx. So the next card must be the King, because when RHO shows out on the second trick, you're in a position to take the marked finesse on the 3rd round.

If it wasn't for the 4-1 break, of course, the hand is cold for 12 tricks in Diamonds, but nobody got to 6 . Nearly half of the field were in 3NT making anything between 9 and 12 tricks. The only Pairs in slam were one pair in 6NT-1 and one in 6 -1 (6 is no good, because the ruff doesn't gain you an extra trick)

Sometimes, even with OCP, you hit a sequence which might be ambiguous with a significant affect on the subsequent bidding. Imagine you are South (North was Eszter)


South
  AK
  Q
  KQ987643
  Q9


After some reflection you decide on a 1 Opening rather than 1 (and yes, I did give 1 some serious thought) and with no opposition bidding, the bidding proceeds


1 - 1
3 - 4 ⁽¹⁾
4 ⁽²⁾ - 5
??

⁽¹⁾ Does Partner think this is Beta? It is ambiguous, but I think it ought to be natural rather than Beta, hence my bid of 4 .
⁽²⁾ Does Partner think this is showing 0-2 Controls or just saying I have a huge Diamond suit and no support for Hearts or Clubs? Is their subsequent 5 a sign-off, disappointed with my apparent lack of controls?

I tanked for quite a while while I considered my options here. In the end I decided (especially given that Eszter often tends to be in the wimpish side of aggressive) that I would rather be hung for going off in 6 than playing a cold 6 in a mere game, and bid 6 .

West (my hero) led the 2 and Eszter put down

North
  93
  AK652
  10
  K7532

South
  AK
  Q
  KQ987643
  Q9

East won the Ace of Diamonds and returned the Jack of Spades. I won, and cashed 2 more Diamonds, discarding 2 small Clubs from Dummy, West discarding a Spade and a Club. Now what?

Yes, you could just concede a Club to West's Ace [it's fairly clear they probably have that, because if East had had it, it might have been impossible for them to resist (a) Doubling and (b) trying to cash the A at trick 2]. You can see that with East having started with AJx, unless you were prepared  to run the 10 on the first round of the suit, even 5 is normally not going to be making, so you're only going -1 in 6 , when 5 -1 is probably the "normal" result. I decided to play my luck, though:

If West had 5-card Hearts and the Ace of Clubs, I can squeeze him out of his Heart trick. Also, the fact that Opps don't know I only have 2 Spades might put additional pressure on them.

I therefore  cashed the King of Spades and then ran all of my Diamonds, throwing 2 Hearts from Dummy and then all of Dummy's remaining Clubs. Opps both discarded 2 Hearts on the first 4 of those 5 Diamonds, and, amazingly, both discarded Hearts on the last Diamond, which meant that 6 of the 7 outstanding Hearts had now been chucked. I was now down to AK6 opposite Q, Q9, and took the last 3 tricks in Dummy for 15 IMPs.

6 Pairs were going off in 5 , and almost all of the rest were in making Diamond part-scores. One Pair had made 5 on the lead of the 2 by West but that was the only other pair making a game, let alone a slam.

Lucky? Yes, insanely lucky, but...

After trick 2, you might as well play as I did. If the worst comes to the worst and Opps keep all of their Hearts, one of your Club losers will disappear on the  K so you will still come to the same 11 tricks that the opening lead has gifted you. You might as well play for a mistake from Opps. My possible squeeze position never materialised, but the secondary position did, in that West felt he had to keep hold of the Q and A10 , and East felt he had to hand onto the 108 , which meant that neither of them could hold onto 3 Hearts and were presumably hoping that I was void in Hearts and had no hope of reaching Dummy's AK6.

 

This was a good example hand that came up today while I was playing with OktayA: You are South, Game All, Dealer West. West opens 2 which is passed round to you. You try your luck with 3 and this is passed out

North
  K3
  J84
  K10854
  Q84

South
  QJ2
  A9753
  AJ73
  7

West leads the 2. You play low from Dummy and capture East's 9 with your Jack. Plan the play...

.
.
.

You can see that you've landed on your feet here, in that 2!S is probably going to make fairly comfortably. You just have to make your contract. Losers: 1 Spade, 1 Club, and probably 2 Hearts. No problems there. Tricks: 5 Diamonds, 2 Spades, and hopefully 3 Hearts. Dangers: Clearly there is a Diamond ruff in the offing which is not quite such a problem if it's the hand with 3 or more trumps that's ruffing, because they'll probably be ruffing with a natural trump trick, but it'll definitely cost you the contract if it's the hand with shorter trumps that is ruffing. Options: If Spades are 6-2 you might be able to get across to Dummy safely to lead the K , possibly pinning the singleton 10 in West's hand, but that is a fairly fanciful distribution to play for.

Why look for exotic solutions when by far the most sensible thing is just to play for a 3-2 trump break? Bang down the Ace of Hearts and lead a second Heart towards the Jack. This assures you of 9 tricks whenever the trumps are 3-2. Moreover, the opening lead looks and feels like a singleton, which makes a singleton Heart with West more unlikely.

The full hand:

                       North
                        K3
                        J84
                        K10854
                        Q84
West                                     East
  A1098765                        4
  Q6                                  K102
  2                                      Q96
  K32                                  AJ10965
                       South
                        QJ2
                        A9753
                        AJ73
                        7

At our table (Oktay was West and I was East), the luckless Declarer didn't follow the common-sense approach. At trick 2 he led the Queen of Spades. Oktay hopped up with the Ace and returned a Spade, which I ruffed. I now led the 6 (a Club through the Q84 would have been nice since by now it was probable that Oktay was 7213 shape). Oktay ruffed and returned a 3rd Spade ruffed in Dummy with the Jack and overruffed by my King. The Ace of Clubs and a 3rd Diamond ruffed by Oktay's Q gave us 6 tricks for +200 and a nice 2½ IMP gain.

When you can see Opps are likely to start ruffing, then unless an alternative strategy is obvious, it often pays to forget about subtle plays such as finesses and just go for the quickest method of divesting Opps of their trumps. The probability of a 3-2 split in Hearts is nearly 70%. Why look further? If the trumps are 4-1 the likelyhood is that you're going to be down however you play the hand. Here you can afford to lose two trump tricks so best to just go ahead and lose them as quickly as possible

Played an interesting Teams Match with Samet (doru77) earlier today. After 2 Boards we were 26 (yes, twenty-six) IMPs to the good, helped along by the following hand -(hands rotated for ease of viewing)

Hand 1
Samet played this one very well, but we were booked for a great Board here whatever happened, as it turned out.

North
  8653
  82
  KJ
  Q9864

South
  AKQJ92
  1065
  96
  K5

Bidding
East        South        West       North
No             1           2         2
No             3           X            All Pass

West led the King of Hearts, overtaken by East's Ace and a small Heart back to West's Queen. The Jack of Hearts now followed. Samet did well, ruffing with Dummy's 8. A Club to his King and West's Ace followed and all West could think of was to take their Ace of Diamonds. Ruffing high in Dummy seems like an obvious thing to do, but it's surprising how often Declarer's forget to do it and then wring their hands when East overruffs with the 7. If East holds the 10, there's nothing to be done, but why not give yourself that extra chance?

In practice, our team members were bidding and making 5 on this Board at the other table, so even -100 would have been a good result here, but +530 was the icing on the cake and the lions share of the 14 IMPs we clocked up on the Board.

Hand 2
You are South at Green vs Red, Dealer North.

North
  KQ62
  9862
  A
  KJ96

South
  8743
  -
  Q7432
  AQ52


Bidding
North       East      South      West
1 (1)      No         1          2
2            4        4          X
All Pass

I should perhaps explain that West doubled 4 in a nanosecond. If BBO would permit him to double "in a voice of thunder" I dare say he would have . The lead was the Queen of Hearts, overtaken by East's Ace and ruffed in hand. How do you plan the play?

The other table was in an identical contract via a similar sequence, and the opening lead was a Heart there too. Maybe Declarer there didn't pick up the vibes I did. At trick 2 he played a Spade to the Queen. Now the Ace of Diamonds, a Heart ruffed in hand, Diamond ruffed in Dummy, another Heart ruff, then the Ace of Clubs and a Club to the King. 8 tricks so far, but I suspect Declarer hadn't fully forseen the end position.

North
  K6
  9
  -
  J9

South
  -
  -
  Q74
  Q5

Declarer now led a Club, but West, with AJ10 of Spades and J10 of Hearts was able to ruff, Cash the Ace of Spades and lead a Heart, forcing out Declarer's last trump and so he had to concede the last two tricks for one down.

At the other table, I played for West to have AJ109 right from the start and didn't draw any rounds of trumps. My expectation was that West would have 4522 shape. That would give East a singleton Spade, 4-card Heart support and 5 Diamonds, which I thought was consistent with the bidding. My plan was always to ruff all of Dummy's Hearts, take 2 top Clubs and the Ace of Diamonds as entries to Dummy, ruff 1 Diamond in Dummy and then exit in Clubs.

After ruffing the opening Heart, I crossed with a small Club to the Jack, ruffed a Heart, a Club to the King (West didn't ruff (phew!)), Heart ruff, Diamond to the Ace, Heart ruff, and lastly a Diamond ruff. At this stage I've also made 8 tricks, but see the difference:

North
  KQ6
  -
  -
  J9


South
  -
  -
  Q74
  AQ

Now West is in a hopeless position when I lead a Club. West, with AJ105 and the last Heart, is forced to ruff. If he cashes the A , my KQ are top, and if he leads the last Heart I ruff high and exit again with my last Club. North is now endplayed again by his own trumps to win and lead away from the Ace. In practice West tried the lead of the 10 , but I won with the Queen, and was still able to endplay West with my last Club, which he was forced to ruff.

The critical thing here was (1) to determine not to draw even a single round of trumps, (2) to ruff 4 Hearts in hand and (3) to take 2 top Clubs and the Ace of Diamonds while I was ruffing the Hearts. and only to go for a Diamond ruff in Dummy once all of that had been accomplished. Once West followed to the first two Clubs and East to all 4 Heart tricks, I knew I was home.

Eszter and I had mixed fortunes today. We each went off in two successive slams that should have made:

Hand 1
You are South, the dealer at Game All.

Bidding
South       West       North       East
1             No           2           3
No ⁽¹⁾           No           4 ⁽²⁾      X
5             No           6           All Pass

⁽¹⁾ Gamma in Clubs
⁽²⁾ 7-card , 1 top honour

West leads the 2 and you can see the following

North
  J983
  AQ
  -
  AJ108543

South
  AK7
  J5
  AQ1092
  Q72

On the lead of the 2 how do you plan the play?

.
.
.

You're pretty much on a guess in the Spade suit. If you try the Jack, unlucky! East covers with the Queen and your
King wins the trick. What now? Clearly the probable Heart loser in Dummy is going on the Ace of Diamonds, so that's not an issue. Is it really likely that East has 9-card Hearts and an opening ruff is a possibility? Well anything is possible, but 3 seems a little wet with a 9-card suit. You have an almost certain Spade loser, so clearly you need to try to pick up the Clubs for no loser. Eszter played a small Club to the Ace, no doubt hoping that the Spade loser would magically disappear - unlucky. East was void in Clubs and she eventually had to concede 2 tricks.

The thing about this hand is that East is likely to have at least 6 if not 7 or even 8 Hearts on this bidding (given that they're missing the AQJ). That means they have far far fewer cards outside Hearts than West does, so it's odds on that West will have more Clubs than East. Even without the big clue from the bidding, it's odds on to finesse against an outstanding King missing 3 cards in the suit. Playing the Ace is playing for East to have the stiff King or Kx, which is greatly against the odds when they've pre-empted.


Hand 2
The very next hand Eszter and I bid to 6NT with no opposition bidding:

Love All, Dealer East.

North
  A83
  KQ65
  K107
  A102

South
  KQ
  AJ92
  A52
  Q975

1 - 1
1NT - 2NT   //   Beta  /  6 Controls
3NT - 6NT   //   HoC   /  fancies it!

West leads the 4 . How do you plan the play?

I tried the 7 from Dummy and took East's Queen with my Ace. 10 top tricks. possible finesse brings us up to 11, but clearly the critical suit here is Clubs. The classic hand distribution tables don't really help here, because most of them ignore the presence of the 9 and don't cater for the necessity of losing only 1 trick in the suit. The presence of the 9 is critical, because it raises the possibility of two finesses against West, which is a 75% probability of success (all things being equal), whereas cashing the Ace and leading small towards the Queen you are effectively on a 50% guess when Opps play a low card when you lead towards the queen.

Anyway, I led a small Club at trick 2 and inserted the 10, losing to the Jack in East's hand. East returned a small Spade. I cashed my two top Spade tricks, a Heart to Dummy's King, cashed the Ace of Spades, back to a top Heart in my hand (West discarded a Club), took the Diamond finesse (which worked), cashed the King of Diamonds (West played the Jack and East followed with the 9). The Queen and Jack of Hearts saw me back in my hand with A2 opposite Q9 (West having discarded a Club and a Spade on the Hearts). I now led the Queen of Clubs and West followed with a small one. Do I finesse or play for the drop?

I should have got this one right, all things considered. I was faked out by West's play of the Jack of Diamonds on the 3rd round of the suit and ran the Queen, losing two more tricks to East's now singleton K!C and the Jack of Spades. Was it really likely, however, that East, holding Q963 in Diamonds, would false-card with the 9 from 93, 2nd-in-hand, when I cashed the King on the 3rd round of the suit, not knowing whether I had the 6 left or not? I could tell that either the 9 or the Jack on the 3rd round of the suit was a false card, but a few seconds of thought would clarify that it was a racing certainty that it was West (4th-in-hand) who was false-carding, because they know they have the 13th Diamond. If West has the 6 , which is anyway far more likely given their lead at trick 1, then they cannot also have the King of Clubs, which must now be singleton in East's hand, so I should have dropped it to make the slam. Ho Hum. 20 IMPs away in 2 hands!

Hi All,


This was an interesting play problem from a hand I played with Nuri yesterday.



North
  A108
  A1094
  AK54
  92

South
  -
  J8753
  62
  KQJ1083

EW Game, Dealer East

Bidding
East       South         West        North
2         No              No            X
No          3 (Xf)       No            No (!!!!)
3         4              No            4
No          4              No            5 (!!!!)
X            5              All Pass

We'll draw a slight veil over the bidding. Nuri forgot we played Transfer Leb over our doubles of their Weak 2's. The fact that East was under-valuing his 12-count with 7-card Spades, but then enthusiastically competing later on saved us from playing the hand in 3 . Anyway, you're in 5 and West leads the Jack of Spades. How do you plan the play?

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From the bidding it sounds like East has 10 or 11 cards between Diamonds and Spades (because they doubled 5 , but didn't double 5 ). That means a bad Heart split is almost a racing certainty. The only good news is that the Hearts are going to be on your left. You have 2 inescapable losers in the Ace of Clubs and 1 Heart, so there's no margin for error. Might East be 6-5 in the sharp suits? Possibly, so early ruffs of Diamonds in your hand should not be in your game plan.

Even though you're anticipating a bad Heart split, it's more flexible to leave the Ace of Spades in Dummy and ruff the first trick in hand, so you can attack the Hearts. You run the Jack of Hearts which holds the trick, East discarding a small Spade - no big surprise there. What now?

Clearly you need to develop the Clubs, because with the bad Heart split, you're not going to get many ruffs in, so at trick 3 lead the King of Clubs, which holds. Change of plan? No! The Queen of Clubs is taken by East's Ace (West playing the 6 and 7). East now leads the Queen of Spades. Ruff or take the Ace?

Still better to ruff in your hand and continue with the Clubs. West follows to the 3rd Club and one of Dummy's losing Diamonds goes away. The 4th Club finishes West off. By now it's looking like East started with KQxxxxx, -, QJxx Ax, or KQxxxx, -, QJxxx Ax. On the 4th Club, if West discards, the last losing Diamond goes away; if they ruff, you overruff and play Ace King and a 3rd Diamond, ruffing with the 8, and either way you're only conceding the Ace of Cubs and one Heart trick. This works even if the Diamonds are 5-2.

5 making was only moderately good, because some insane EW Pairs competed in Spades at the 5 or 6 level, which is insane at this vulnerability, and so there were a few -800's floating about. Only one other pair were allowed to play in Hearts (at the 4-level) and somehow managed to make only 9 tricks.

(1) Assess the hand
(2) Count your tricks and losers
(3) Make a plan that is realistically based on the bidding and what you can see
(4) Continually re-assess the hand and if necessary tweak your plan.


On this hand the key plays were to ruff Spades in hand rather than taking the Ace in Dummy, because you need to be in hand rather than in Dummy, having the determination to finesse the Hearts rather than p[laying for them to be 2-2 or with a singleton honour somewhere, and getting the Clubs developed as soon as the Heart position is known. The bidding made it incredibly unlikely that East had started with 4 Clubs, so pushing Clubs is totally safe once we know East cannot ruff Clubs.