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The Missing Jacks.

They are usually the least important of the honour cards, that is the honours we attribute points for. Let’s see how we fare when we have four aces, three kings, four queens but no jacks!

 

 

Our North opened a weak 2 in hearts which was kind of good news for South opposite. They enquired with 2NT with the 3 response showing a feature in diamonds (not a shortage: presumably the king) and a respectable Weak Two. That was much better news.
 South asked no more (they had all the aces and it would have taken far too many rounds of bidding to ask about jacks!) and jumped to 6NT. West led 10 with East playing an encouraging 3 (they must have J!)
Any thoughts about playing this contract?

Maybe South’s thoughts were about how they should have been a level higher. 6 diamond tricks, 3 heart and 3 spade tricks along with A would add up to 13.

They won in hand to cash A and then played a diamond to the king, both defenders following. Next came KQ discarding two clubs from hand to be followed by 3.

However, East did not play a diamond this time, discarding a club. They had also not followed to the third round of hearts either, throwing a spade on that trick. South had to lose a diamond trick to West’s J, the only losing card from South’s point of view, except that West also held the high J as well. One down was the inevitable result. Was that necessary?

 

This deal is a good example of the difference between playing Teams and Pairs. One would expect the majority of pairs to be in a slam, spread between 6NT, 6 and 6. Most of the time, indeed, any time there is a singleton J or a 3-2 diamond break, there will be an easy 13 tricks available in all these contracts (except that 6 would require the J to fall in 3 rounds as well). At Pairs, it is very tempting to try for all 13 tricks, even at the 6 level. The above line would certainly be correct in 7NT.

Both 6 and 6 should make even played by North on the club lead with West having length in both red suits.

Some/ maybe most would play as above in 6NT and of course would only fail when one hand can take tricks from J and J. (6 played by North would be in danger on an initial club lead from East.) 13 tricks most of the time, except today, though 4-1 breaks are of course not that infrequent as we all know.

Playing Teams, it would be a major disaster to fail in 6NT even if it turned out to be a flat board! At trick 3, just lead a low diamond from the South hand as we all would do but play low from the North hand as well! Lose one trick in the suit at a time when it is safe to do so, to ensure generally 5 tricks in diamonds. We regain the lead and can play a diamond to K, making 12 tricks even when there is a 4-1 break.

 Well, if one opponent started with all 5 diamonds, then it really was not your day though maybe there will be good news in the heart suit (5 hearts, 3 spades, 3 diamonds and A).

Yet, a 5-0 diamond break is much rarer than a 4-1 break. On this occasion, giving up that diamond trick early would ensure you get 12 eventually. Yes, you probably could have made all 13 but as is often the case, even 1440 will be a good score.

You can ensure your slam even without holding any of those jacks. Who needs them!

Richard Solomon

More tomorrow for our JIN Club players as it is Fri  Day.

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