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Pairs’ isn’t Fair.

This week I saw my football team equalise with a penalty in the last minute to finish 4-4 with league leaders, Manchester City. Neither team deserved to lose as both played good football. The same could be said of the two pairs who contested today’s board though there was a loser, even if both pairs had played good bridge.

 

2NT showed a Weak No Trump hand. Any thoughts with the East hand above?

At the table, East envisaged how 3NT might be beaten. If their partner could be encouraged to lead a heart and South’s spade hold was not the ace, then declarer might be in for a rather bumpy ride. However, it would be unlikely that West would choose a heart, without some guidance. That was certainly the case as these were the four hands:

 

The “guidance” was by doubling 3NT. That double suggests strongly that East has a good holding in dummy’s first bid suit. As you can see, a heart lead at trick 1 works a treat. East takes trick 1 by beating whichever honour declarer plays from dummy and very soon has J on the table. That’s a very quick 7 tricks for the defence (5 spades and 2 hearts): down 3 doubled…+800.

Unfortunately for the defence, North was aware of what might happen and pulled the double to 4…and that is where the auction finished.

At first glance of dummy, South wanted to be a level higher but they received the same heart lead they would have received in 3NT. East won and switched to J and the defence soon collected 3 tricks though South had the rest for +130.

Was the double of 3NT a good idea? Without it, it is very likely West would either lead a spade or the Q. The more favourable for South is the spade as it gives them 5 diamond, 2 club and a spade trick, just down 1. After Q lead, South has only 7 tricks to cash before trying J or a third round of clubs…and the defence should have the rest. +130 is thus looking like a great score for North-South.

Unfortunately, in a small field, the South players in 3NT made 9 tricks after Q lead. On the run of the diamonds, East should have been able to indicate by their first discard that they liked hearts. West need only keep one heart for the defence to be successful. It looks like, when gaining the lead with a club, the West players cashed A and continued spades. Wires crossed!

Meanwhile, other pairs reached 5 without having been doubled in 3NT on the way. The opening lead was crucial and  none of the A, a trump or the Q worked for the defence. After the trump or Q lead, South could discard one of dummy’s spades on the second high club and there was then just a heart and a spade to lose, making +400. West’s club holding meant that a heart lead was much less likely.

Were 5 defeated, then +130 was to be a good result for North/South  ….except that no other West found a heart lead whether they were defending 5 or a diamond partial.

So, East-West scooped all the match-points for conceding – 130. There was no last minute penalty for North-South. Both pairs at the table where 3NT had doubled had played good bridge but because of the results at the other tables, only one of these pairs could record a good result.

“Pairs’ isn’t Fair”. At least, it was only one board.

Richard Solomon

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