Author Topic: Attempting an Endplay  (Read 4731 times)

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Offline OliverC

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Attempting an Endplay
« on: January 21, 2018, 10:39:31 PM »
This was an interesting deal, on which, with Eszter at the helm, we got a very decent result:

Love All, Dealer West

South (Dummy)
!S AJ
!H 842
!D Q7432
!C Q94

!C King led

North
!S 74
!H AQJ10765
!D K986
!C -

Bidding
West     North     East     South
No          1 !H        2 !C      2 !H
3 !C        4 !H        All Pass

Eszter ruffed the opening lead in hand and scored immediately by dropping East's singleton King of Hearts. The !H Queen followed, on which East discarded a small Spade. Now what?

There is considerable potential for trying to endplay East here. Ideally you want Opps to open up the Diamonds for you. East surely started with !C AK and cannot continue attacking the suit without creating a Club trick for you. If you play !S AJ and can persuade East to win the second Spade trick, then they will be endplayed and possibly persuaded to open up the Diamonds for you.

As the cards lie that line you probably have worked quite nicely, since West started with !S Q9863 and probably would (and later on, did) duck the Jack rather than covering it with the Queen. I thought Eszter had found that line when she crossed to the !S Ace at trick 4, but then she ruffed a Club before exiting with a Spade towards the Jack. Ruffing a Club first is a mistake, I feel, because Opps already know North was void in Clubs, so it's not achieving anything and, what's more, gives up the threat which prevents East from continuing Clubs. Now East, winning the second Spade with the King, had an easy exit with the !C Ace.

Eszter recovered well, though: instead of ruffing the !C Ace, she discarded a Diamond from hand and now East (holding !D J10x) was well and truly endplayed to either open up the Diamonds (which West would win with their singleton Ace) or to give Declarer a ruff 'n' discard in one of the Black suits, which would allow Dummy to ruff and Declarer to shorten their Diamonds down to !D K9.


Taking unnecessary ruffs can be counter-productive, as here when the second Club ruff effectively removed the threat against East. Worth noting, however, that playing Ace and another Spade wins even when West wins the second Spade. If they return a small Club, Declarer simply discards a Diamond from hand rather than ruffing and now, whoever has the !C Ace, another Diamond will eventually go away on the !C Queen.

10 tricks in 4 !H was surprisingly worth nearly 9 IMPs, because lots of NS Pairs were being pushed to the 5 or even the 6-level and going off. In 5 !H you pretty much have to drop the !H King offside and attack the Diamonds from Dummy (and have the foresight to unblock the !D 8 or 9 under the Ace rather than playing the 6).
Oliver