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And Everything to Gain!

Well, just beating the contract would be great! So, a defensive problem for you, here. You are playing Teams.

 

You lead 4 on which partner plays J and declarer A. At trick 2, East plays T. Which heart do you play?

We know the guideline about covering honours that it is correct to do so if it will or could benefit your side to cover. Does that apply here?

What seems apparent is that if East had enough tricks in clubs, they would not be attacking hearts. So, East is interested in developing heart tricks. Are they really going to play a high honour if you play low smoothly? That seems unlikely with only 5 hearts in dummy.

If 10 is singleton, there is little to be lost in covering because, if you do, your 7 will win the 4^th round of the suit, instead of Q if you do not cover. Yet, suppose East has 2 hearts? Now, ducking will mean declarer has 5 heart tricks by running 10. Then, your only chance is to play Q and hope you can promote a trick for your 7.

It is possible. Take a look:

 

At several tables, South did not cover and then it was just a case of whether East could make any overtricks. They should not as after 5 rounds of hearts and AK, East plays a spade to their king and your ace. South could still have retained all 3 diamonds so that the defence could take 3 diamond tricks and the A but the contract still would make.

However, had South covered that 10, East is in big trouble. They can take 3 heart tricks and either hope they can come to a second diamond trick and give up a heart or abandon the heart suit and cash AK and hope North holds A. Either way, they will be disappointed.

However, South must be careful when they gain the lead in that their diamonds are not good enough to play from the top. They need to play their partner for Q, a card North is almost certain to hold since East would surely have played that card at trick 1 had they held it. Thus, small diamond to Q and a third diamond will see South’s K8 take 2 tricks over East’s 97. The defence will take 3 diamond tricks, A and a heart or perhaps a second spade trick had East played a spade to the king.

It was a case that ducking Q could not gain whereas covering at trick 2 just might.

Of the 12 times East declared 3NT, a diamond was led 4 times but only once was the contract defeated. On a non-diamond lead, with J doubleton, East will have 9 easy tricks (5 clubs, A, and either 2 hearts and a spade or 3 heart tricks).

Meanwhile, 4 and 4 were relatively straightforward making games with 13 out of 17 declarers successful, mainly in 4. A good hand for the Gazzilli convention where West’s jump to 3 guarantees at least 5-5 in the majors. East’s minor suits are not that strong and they should then choose to play in spades, potentially, though not here, an 8-card fit.

What a shame, though, that several times where South found the killing diamond lead to 3NT, they could not follow that up with the cover of 10 and record a plus score.

Richard Solomon

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