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A switch but to which suit?

An important switch.

The bidding was very fast and furious! We have ended up defending. As usual, we have a decision to make, not regarding the opening lead as that was a fairly easy lead for our partner but what to do at trick 2?

 

Your partner opens a Weak 2 in hearts with the next three bids all being natural. South’s 3 was to keep 3NT as a possible destination: not today, though! Many South players would bid 5 directly. Your partner leads a low heart (6) and you win with A as declarer follows with 3. What now?

We know the lay-out of the heart suit. On a different day, we would return a trump to save declarer ruffing a heart in dummy but we know on this day that declarer has no losing hearts left.

The case for a diamond

What do we know about declarer’s hand other than a long strong suit of spades and a singleton heart? We do know that 6 has been bid to make. So, we expect a minimum 7 spades and know of 1 only heart. If they have 2 or more clubs, then we would need to switch smartly to score a diamond trick. It seems very unlikely that our partner has A (they would lead it) but have they the Q and a trump trick? Kx and Q would seem to be as much as we could hope for. If that was the case, we must switch to a diamond.

What say a club?

Yet, there is no guarantee of North holding 2 clubs. It does sound rather like North has strong spades…and hoping for that Q seems more likely than K. Another possibility then is that North might just have one club and that by playing a club at trick 3, we force declarer to take discards before drawing trumps. If say, they need to discard 2 diamonds from an original Axx holding, then you can ruff the third round of clubs and the contract must then fail. Another good plan.

More than 2 clubs in the North hand?

Maybe then the heart partner led would be significant. A very low heart might indeed request a club at trick 2 with partner ruffing it.

So, what would your choice be?

No minor switch!

If you went with either of those switches, you would soon be writing down – 980 as these were the four hands:

 

The diamond switch would have given North no choice but to take the diamond finesse. When it worked the first time, they could try it again (diamond to J) and North would win a second finesse. They could draw trumps and claim 12 tricks.

The same situation occurred when West chose the club switch. They were in dummy to take 2 diamond finesses.

A ruff and discard heart continuation produces the same outcome as the minor switch. That surely was never an option.

The trump switch …for a very different reason!

There was, of course, a third situation…that North had no clubs. Then, not to prevent ruffs, the switch at trick 3 had to be to a trump thus trapping North in their hand and you, West, awaited your diamond trick. It would have been an agonising wait for West but there would be no claim from North and even if North played off copious rounds of trumps, West would have no problem in discarding.

All North wanted was to see was K in dummy though without it, 6 seemed optimistic. At another table, North only bid 5 (after 5 from partner) and then did not bid again when South rebid their clubs at the 6 level. That contract should make comfortably  after A and a spade switch with a second spade ruffed (10 is best), trumps drawn and then a diamond to the ace. After a diamond switch at trick 2, declarer must finesse or else they would lose contact with dummy after ruffing a spade and drawing trumps. If they try to discard 2 diamonds on the spades immediately, 6 would fail as East ruffs the third round of spades.

 6 was not a common contract. It made 5 times and failed just once, each time after an initial heart lead. 6 succeeded just once with the rest of the field playing safely in game, usually the spade game.

Did you find the spade switch and for the right reason? Sympathies to those  defenders who switched to a club agianst the spade slam, often the right defence in such a situation but not on this day.

Richard Solomon

 

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