Playing Safe

[OliverC]

For me, it's a matter of pride (at IMPs) to try to safely make the maximum number of tricks I can. Take this hand (You are West, playing OCP)

NS Vulnerable, Dealer East

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

East (Dummy)
A10962
108532
J
94

West (You)
J84
AQ7
AK9
A1073

North leads a small Diamond and Dummy's Jack holds the trick, an unexpected bonus, but it doesn't really add to your trick-taking potential and unfortunately now you can see you are in grave danger of making far too many tricks. If one of the Spade honours is with North, you might make 11 tricks, but you've stopped short of game. The real bonus is that you've acquired an easy entry to Dummy, which will allow you an early Heart finesse.

There's absolutely nothing wrong in taking the Heart finesse and you easily come to 10 tricks if you do just that. My pride in getting the maximum number of tricks led me in a different direction, because I was fairly certain that missing the AKJ of his Suit, North would almost certainly have most of the rest of the outstanding high cards. That in turn made me think he probably had the stiff King of Hearts or Kx.

At trick 2, I played a small Heart from Dummy and instead of inserting the Queen, I took the Ace (Opps both followed low), cashed the Ace of Diamonds, discarding a Club from Dummy, Cashed the ace of Clubs and ruffed a Club in Dummy. Now I led a Heart towards my remaining Qx, and When South played the 9 I ducked. North had the King left but it hit thin air. North exited with the King of Spades, but now I could win in Dummy, draw the last trump and then play on Spades for 11 tricks. This was only worth about half an IMP, because several Pairs did reach game on this hand, but I did have the satisfaction of being the only person playing in Hearts or Spades to make 11 tricks.

As an aside, this emphasises the danger of overcalling 1 on the North hand (North held KQ7, K4, Q7543, K62). Firstly it's a horrible suit, you're vulnerable against not, and you potentially have a fair amount of defensive strength, especially sat over the 1 Bidder. Secondly, it gave me the clue I needed to safety-play the Hearts, something I wouldn't probably have considered doing if North had stayed silent, so it cost North a trump trick suring the play (If I take the Heart finesse, I absolutely have to lose 2 trump tricks, as the cards lie). Lastly, The Diamond bid from North might well cause East to upgrade their hand because of their singleton Diamond and invite game (and I wouldn't need much of an invitation to bid game). I accuse Eszter (who was sat East) of being a bit of a wimp at times, but even she must have been considering doing something other than passing 2 .

One other thing: I feel Eszter didn't quite bid this right. Once I bid 1NT over her double of 1 , I feel she can afford to transfer into Spades and then rebid the Hearts at the 3-level. Because I know she only has 5-7 hcp, this can hardly have the game-forcing nature that such a sequence would normally have, so it merely becomes invitational, and probably with 5-5 in the Majors. I might be expecting 7 hcp from here, but the singleton Diamond makes up for that. Now we would get to 4 and 11 tricks in 4 would have been worth 6 IMPs rather than a fraction of an IMP.

Someone complimented me on this hand, saying that it was as if I could see through the backs of Opps' cards. That wasn't the case, I assure you, but I was firmly convinced that North had the King of Hearts. If he had started with KJx and South with 9x I'm always losing 2 Heart tricks, whatever line I take, but crucially, when North started with K or Kx in Hearts, my line saves a trick. It made precious little difference to our score on this hand, but if you don't exercise your bridge techniques, they'll get rusty and you might not think of this sort of thing when it really does make a difference (eg: you're in 5 rather than 2 ).