All News

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players …and others. It’s Fri  day.

Time to change course?

There are contracts where defenders have to change course if they want to be successful. Either an initial lead has not worked out or that suit simply will not produce enough tricks for the defence. It looks like the suit led today will provide no tricks for the defence. So, time to look elsewhere for the defence?

 

1 promised at least 5 spades. Your 3 bid was pre-emptive and hopefully that would make bidding difficult for your opponents. South showed 2 suits and North tried for game.

You led 8 (2^nd highest from 4 small spades) and dummy’s A took the first trick with declarer contributing J. Declarer calls for a trump from dummy and inserts J from hand with your K winning the trick. What now?

It would be nice to believe that your partner has A though there is no guarantee. Even if South has A, it is really important that you do not deviate from your opening lead. Let’s see why. Declarer does have a weakness and it is not where you might expect:

 

At the table, West continued with a second spade which was ruffed by South who then played A and a third round of hearts. East won that and once more played a spade. With 2 trump and 1 certain club loser, South had to ruff.

Have you noticed one great thing for the defence? After ruffing twice and playing 3 rounds of trumps, South had no trumps left. So, they played five rounds of diamonds with East discarding a spade on the 5^th round. West might have thought the contract was about to make but when a club was played from dummy, East took their ace and still had one spade left at trick 13 to beat the contract: 2 trumps, A and a spade for the defence.

That defence might not seem hard but any deviation from playing spades and the contract would have made. West must not return a trump, play a club or even switch to a diamond as all give South time to set up a club trick ( K ) and that will be their 10^th trick. East must not cash A when in with the third round of hearts or else again the contract makes.

The only way for the defence to prevail after the initial spade lead is to continue playing spades with declarer eventually running out of trumps before they could play a club to gain a trick in that suit.

What about the bidding?

West’s 3 bid certainly made it hard for North-South. North wanted to bid something over 3 and had they done so, they might have reached a playable contract since both 4 and 4 can make. North might have tried a negative double but when South bid 4C, would they know it was best to pass that?

After passing and then hearing 4 from South, North felt they had too much to pass and chanced 4. Again a 4 bid could have worked out better.

The other option was for South to use a 2 Michael’s Cue Bid instead of 2, thus showing at least 5 cards in hearts and a minor. The bidding might then have proceeded:

     

4 said “pass if your minor is clubs or bid 4 if that is your minor.” It is quite rare for 4 of a minor to be the right contract but it was here for North-South.

The other way for North-South to get a plus score was to pass out 3 as that contract should be beaten by one trick. Even the lead of A and a second heart beats this contract as North gets a heart ruff, as long as South keeps on playing hearts, another time when it is best to carry on playing the suit led initially. No time to change course!

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items