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

Doing it Right.

Welcome back to our Friday slot for less experienced players. Today’s deal is one all declarers should get right though only just over half of the 40+ Souths who played in a slam made their contract and I suspect some of those may have been helped by the defence.

 

South had 19 hcp and reasonable cover in all suits. Thus, after hearing their partner show a minimum hand with long spades, they chanced Key-Card Blackwood. The 5 response showed the 2 missing aces but denied the Q (no 5 response). Therefore, playing Pairs, South thought that 6NT would be as good (or maybe as bad!) as 6 and so that was where the bidding ended.

West led 8. It seems like you will need tricks from spades to make your contract. So, how do you play the spade suit? On the first round of the suit (you played SK), both defenders play a low spade. When you play 10 next, West plays the remaining low spade. What now?

This situation is very much like when you are in a suit contract with 8 trumps missing QJ, often a 5-3 or 4-4 fit. You can afford one loser in the suit but not two. Let’s look at the 4 hands:

 

Firstly, notice that you start with K not with a small spade from dummy. If West had only a singleton Q or J and you played 10 on the first round after leading 2 from dummy, you would have to lose 2 spade tricks. It is true that that would be the best play if East held 4 spades headed by the queen and the jack but that is against the odds...and West is just as likely to have that holding. 

So, we start with K and then play 10. We know West has at least 2 spades. We need to protect in case they started with 4. If the spade break is 3-2, it does not matter how we play the suit. As you can see above, if you played A on the second round after West followed with 3 and 4, the contract must fail.

As it is, by playing low, you can soon make 5 spade tricks which along with 4 tricks in clubs and 2 in each red suit is more than enough. In fact, you only needed 3 spade tricks..but you could not afford to lose 2 in the process of getting them.

That is a safety play, taking as “safe” a line as you can to ensure the success of your contract.

An “unsafe” finesse

Do not be tempted to take the heart finesse. Yes, it works and then you would have 3 heart, 2 diamond and 4 club tricks. You still would need 3 spade tricks! If the heart finesse failed, so too would your contract.

So, safely does it.

What then of West?

The defence needs 2 tricks to beat 6NT and West would be hopeful of scoring a spade trick. However, that does not mean that they should play J on the second round. It is true that South might be able to come to 13 tricks if they score 3 tricks in spades. If that were true, they are very unlikely to try and score three spade tricks first of all.

So, West should play low, in normal tempo, on the second round of spades and hope that the declarer forgets to take the above safety play. If they do not, then the contract must fail. The fact that so many failed in slam, or indeed did not make 12 tricks if they were playing in 3NT or 4 suggests that the safety play was often ignored….

At declarer’s peril!

Richard Solomon

Here’s hoping many of you will enjoy the Loveblock New Zealand Wide Pairs this evening and in the process support the development of Youth Bridge in this country.

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