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Safety Day!

For Junior, Intermediate and Junior players..and all those who failed to make at least 10 tricks in today’s deal! It’s Fri day.

Do not feel too bad if you get today’s deal wrong since when it was played, around one in six of the declarers in an Open field along with many more in the Intermediate and Junior competitions failed to make game in hearts. At least, some of them were in part-score, a plus score but probably the wrong technique in the play of the hand. So, the pressure’s on!

 

After South’s overcall, West had the perfect hand to make a negative double. Then, after North’s competitive raise, East tried 3. West thought they had enough to try for game, trusting their partner to have at least 6 hearts.

South started with two top diamonds. East ruffed and played a heart to the K. South played 2 and North 4. On the second round of trumps, North played 7. What does East play?

It is possible to make 11 tricks as declarer in hearts though the aim, certainly for those in game, was at least to make 10. When the three small hearts had been played, there were 3 possible lay-outs of the missing trump honours. Either defender could hold both of them or else there was one in each defender’s hand. In the latter case or if South held them both, it did not matter whether East played A or finessed on the second round. They would only lose one heart trick.

However, if North held both QJ, it mattered a lot! Play the ace and two trump tricks would have to be lost. So, it is better to finesse. Note that declarer’s line might be affected if the defence threatened a ruff should East finesse here. Declarer might then choose to ignore the correct safety play. That was not the case here. North/South bid and supported diamonds and South led them. The “safety play” here is the correct and winning play.

 

After 8 scored on the second round of trumps, East cashes A and turns their attention to the club suit. Playing Q seems best. As 10 and 9 are missing, normally East will lose a club trick no matter where K is. However, the above is the exception. If South covers Q (Q usually promises J. Note “usually” does not mean “always!") with K, 8 in the West hand will win the third round of clubs.

Here, South does best not to play K, giving declarer a guess when Q scores as to whether South started with Kx or Kxx. In other words, whether East makes 10 or 11 tricks depends on how South defends. (South does not know who holds 10.) However, the play of the trump suit is in declarer’s hands and they have no-one to blame but themselves if they did not take the “safety play”. Get that right and you will make at least 10 tricks and secure a very good result if you did indeed bid to 4.  

 
Safety play!

Finally, spare a thought for poor North. They simply must follow low to the heart and club play. If they put up a heart honour on the second round, they give the game away. If their heart suit was better, say QJ94, then they would play an honour on the second round. Oh, sparing that thought for North is a great idea. Guess which seat I was in and guess which heart declarer played on the second round...yes, 8!

Richard Solomon

The Mixed Trial to determine the New Zealand Team to go to Denmark in August for the World Championships takes place this weekend at the Remuera Bowling Club over 4 days starting today. There are 8 teams playing knock-out matches. Kibitzers are welcome from Saturday afternoon onwards (there is no room for the quarter-finals). The final will be on BBO starting around 4pm on Sunday and lasting all day Monday. Matches are 60 boards long. Good luck to all teams. 

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