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Learning the hard way.

It seemed like a routine part-score. Indeed, at most tables it was. West did not really have a take-out double of 1S, without having a 4 card heart suit. North did not have enough hcp to bid 2 (they almost did with a reasonable 9-count) but did well to convert back to spades. Playing Pairs, making the same number of tricks in a major scores better than in a minor. Indeed, they might even have bid 3, so good was their 1NT bid…but 2 won the day.

 

 

West had an awkward choice of opening lead and eventually chose 2. 4 was played from dummy and East put up Q though South’s A took the first trick.

Next came 3 from the South hand…and West played Q. This proved to be a bad idea when declarer played A from dummy and this was the full lay-out:

 

Oops! East had to play J. Declarer played a second spade to West’s K. West played K and seeing declarer’s J exited their last trump, won in dummy. Declarer played a low diamond to 10, Q and 4 and when South then played A, they had the rest of the tricks. They lost just one trump and one heart trick.

They may have wished they were in game but they still got a huge score as most in spades only made 10 tricks (and were in 2 or 3)  because West had played 2 on the first round of the suit.

South explained to West that unless playing high on the first round of a suit could benefit their side, it was normal for the second player to play their lowest card. You can see why above. There was no gain in playing Q. Indeed, declarer had to lose 2 trump tricks as long as West played 2.

West took that advice on board as they played the second board of the set.

 

Again, North made an interesting choice in bidding 2 even though they had more diamonds than spades. They knew their partner had at least 5 spades but maybe only had 4 diamonds. Not only do 5-2 fits often produce more tricks than 4-3 fits but once again, spade tricks are worth more than those in diamonds…as long as the contract makes!

West chose to lead 6 (2^nd highest from 4 small cards). Declarer called for 2 from dummy and East’s J was taken by South’s Q. At trick 2, South played 2. Remembering the advice given seconds earlier, West played 7 and dummy’s J won the trick. The unmakeable contract could now not be defeated.

 

Leading a low spade was the best way for South to draw trumps. They had to lose at least 1 trump trick. If West held Q and three others, leading low towards the J ensures just one , not two trump losers.

When J scored, declarer played 2 more rounds of trumps and made 8 tricks…5 trumps, Q and AK.

The trump lay-out was a little hard for West to envisage. They had to remember the exception given in that piece of recently given advice: “unless playing high on the first round of a suit could benefit their side”. It definitely did in this case. 

 

Learning the hard way!

Playing high here would benefit East-West. The exception here hopefully proved the rule…or maybe for West playing was “learning the hard way”.

Richard Solomon

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