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Ducking to Defeat.

Opening hands are getting weaker by the day…..or so East might have thought on inspecting dummy as they embarked on defending and hopefully defeating 3NT. Maybe the declarer felt a little short-changed? Nevertheless, it might need care to beat what could be an ambitious contract.

 

North was certainly minimum for their opening. They gave a passing thought to removing 3NT too though eventually reasoned they “had made their own bed…” Your partner leads 4 (4^TH highest leads) and your K wins the first trick. You continue 6 which declarer takes with A as your partner indicates a likely 5+ card suit by following with 3 .

As you might expect, declarer starts a club attack by leading 8 from hand and playing low from dummy. Plan the defence.

Well, the defence will soon be over if you win the Q and play your last diamond as this was the full story:

 

South was not going down without a fight! They were hoping for an even diamond break whereby they only lost 2 tricks in each minor or even better where West held Q and they only had one club loser. They gave themselves an extra chance where West had started with 5 diamonds and did not hold either club honour. They ducked the first round of diamonds.

More ducking

If East took the first round of clubs with their Q, the contract could no longer be beaten. When in a couple of tricks later with A, they had no more diamonds left and South could win the spade exit and enjoy all those club tricks in dummy, 4 clubs, 3 hearts ( no time for a finesse!) as well as 2 diamonds and the A.

As long as East ducks the first round of clubs, South cannot prevail. If South plays their second club, East wins and plays their third diamond. South now could score 4 heart tricks but still needs a second spade trick to come to 9…and in the process of trying to get a second spade trick, will have to concede 3 diamonds, 2 spades and at least 1 club. If South immediately tries to set up spade tricks, they are certain to lose 5 tricks.

It would be a pity not to defeat the contract after West had led the only suit which does defeat 3NT.  It looks like a heart lead will cause declarer problems too. There, South needs to win the opening lead in hand to play a club. If East ducks the first club, South will try a second club won by Q. South can see they will be cut off from dummy and thus ducks spades twice.  As the defence has not attacked diamonds, all they can take is 2 tricks in each black suit while declarer scores 3 tricks in each major, 2 diamonds and a club: contract made.

So, unless West got off to a diamond lead and East ducked the first round of clubs, 3NT should make. So can 5 for the loss of just two trump tricks. Maybe North’s moment of wonder about passing 3NT had legitimate cause. However, North survived their moment of wonder. The light opener did work as the only two declarers in 3NT made on a heart lead while the majority played in a spade part-score where 10 tricks was certainly a level too high.

Richard Solomon

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