Auction Note: No, partner did
not have their cards mixed up,
the system was
4-card majors and 2/1 forcing to 2N...
The opponents play 3rd/5th leads with upside down count-attitude and
odd-even
first discards (an Odd first discard says they like that suit, an Even
discard
says they don't like that suit and gives suit preference for the other
suits.) LHO leads  4 (presumably 5th
best), RHO plays the 8, and you win
the J.
Plan the play!
Though partner has put down 14 HCP and the Ace in your suit,
things don't look
like they are going to be easy. So we turn to the first rule in NT
contracts
- count your tricks! This actually turns out not to be so easy this
time. You certainly have 2, 1 , and 2 .
That gets you 5 tricks. You need to
develop at least 4 more. Hearts have potential for 1 more trick (via
the
finesse), diamonds for 3 or 4 more tricks (by establishing the suit),
and
clubs anywhere from 1 to 3 tricks (depending on how the suit breaks.)
So it
is not clear where all your tricks will come from.
Now think about the opponents' hands... You should now know
that spades are
6-1. The play of the 8 must be a
singleton, since from 82 your RHO would
play the 2, showing an even number. LHO has bid at the two-level
vulnerable
holding a bad 6-card spade suit (A97642). What other cards does he
have? The
major missing cards are K, Q,  A. He
almost certainly has the A and he
could have all three of these cards.
The first conclusion you must reach in planning your play is
that you will
likely need the club suit. (Yes - 2, 2, 5 would
be enough! But if all
those cards are in the right places you will have a chance to try them
later. Also, there are other variations on the play, but all require at
least one
club trick...) It is a good practice to knockout the threat hand's
(LHO)
entry early - A! If RHO has made a
deceptive play at trick one, holding 82
of spades, it could be disastrous to give RHO the lead before knocking
out the A.
Trick 2 - Play a small club towards the Q. Today your LHO wins
A and plays A followed by the 7. Your RHO discards the 3,
comfortably, and 5,
after some hesitation. Now, if you believe your opponent's carding, the
K
is wrong, but before we make that decision, let's count our tricks
again. We
have 2 and it looks like 1, 2, and 3. That gets us to 8 tricks. Now
we think about the opponents' hands again. When you are in 3rd position
as a
defender it is usually the case that you keep the same length as dummy.
RHO's
easy discard of the 3 tells us they
are likely to hold 5 or more hearts. The hesitation before the second
discard leads us to believe they had 5 Hearts
and LHO had 3 Hearts. So if we believe that LHO played a singleton A at
trick 2 then we have a good idea of the opponents' distributions: LHO
(6-3-3-1) and RHO (1-5-2-4.)
The choice of plays at trick 5 is quite interesting. There are
many
variations and there is no obvious correct play. 1) Playing on clubs,
forcing
LHO to discard could be a good way to gain more information about the
heart
and diamond suits, but it risks cutting communication between your
hands and
greatly limiting your options... 2) A simple line of play that combines
the
heart finesse and playing A and K (hoping for Qx with LHO) is not bad. In
fact it may be the best line of play. But this line of play gives up on
establishing the diamond suit... 3) The line of play I like combines
deception and options. Lead the J!!
(and run it, if it is not covered.) This play has lots of advantages!
LHO may not cover - and then you are home. Also, if this loses you will
have a chance to test if diamonds are 3-3 and
then fall back on the heart finesse (which surely must be working if
RHO has
the Q.)
Trick 5 - J, Q, A, 7. Too bad
the opponents didn't duck that for you. So
now you continue with diamonds from the dummy. If the 10 appears from your
RHO you can duck, knowing they can not get LHO in to run their spades.
Trick 6 - 5, 9, K, 4 (It is
interesting to note the opponents' carding the
diamond suit. It appears the suit is 4-2, with LHO having Q4 or Q1084,
but
you can never be certain of the opponents' carding in a suit you have
bid, so
this is just a note.)
Now you have a decision to make. Play diamonds out of your
hand (playing RHO
for 10) or take the heart finesse? At
first glance it appears that you can
do both - first try the heart finesse and then try to establish the
diamonds. But unfortunately your spots in the heart suit are not good
enough and if the
heart finesse loses, a heart return will likely develop an entry for
LHO. So
it seems that it is not decision time...
But wait! Don't forget about those clubs. Now is a good time
to play clubs
and put some pressure on LHO. Maybe they will do something to help
you...
Trick 7-8 - club to Q and club back to 10. LHO discards 2, 2.
So the opponents didn't do anything to make it easy on you.
This is the 5
card ending.
-
AQ74
-
4
-
6
632
K
To this point you've played the hand well. You've collected a
lot of
information and been a good detective (your goal when declaring
no-trump
contracts.) You can cash the K to put
some final pressure on LHO, but at
this point I think you know what the right play is!
Diamonds will be the winning play! The final tips are the
heart-spade discard
by LHO and the play of the 7 then 9 by RHO. First, LHO discarded a spade
winner. Most defenders are greedy and if they hold the 10 and only small
hearts, they are likely to discard two hearts, hoping to set you more.
Second, the play of 7 then 9 is likely a doubleton (in which case you
have
little play because the heart finesse is likely off as well) or from 1097 or 10987
(Restricted Choice lessens
the chance of these holdings.)
Final Result 3N+1! (2, 1, 4, 3 - A well earned overtrick!)
The Complete Deal:
| Dlr: N |
Q 5 3 |
|
| Vul: Both |
A Q 7 4
|
|
|
A 5
|
|
|
Q642 |
|
| A97642 |
|
8 |
| 1082 |
|
KJ953 |
Q84
|
|
1097
|
| A |
|
J983 |
|
K J 10 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
K J 6 3 2 |
|
|
K 10 7 5 |
|
Remember (as declarer) - combining your chances is a good thing, but
being
deceptive and making the opponents work hard on defense is great!
A final note on the defense - RHO's discards on the spades
were clearly not
best. But in their defense, discarding diamonds could be dangerous! It
could
tell declarer how to play the suit (especially if declarer had 6
diamonds
instead of 5.) Also, unblocking the diamonds may allow declarer to pick
up
the entire suit...
|