All News

SPOT THE DANGER HAND

Can you? If you can, it will help you to find the winning play on the following deal. Here is your hand and dummy after the 9 lead from West. Both sides are vulnerable.

 

 

 

2NT showed 15-17 hcp. East will play the 2 (low encourage) to trick 1. What then is your plan?

At the table, declarer inserted dummy’s S and led a low club to South’s king and West’s ace. West continued with the A on which East played 5 and then continued with 7 to declarer’s king. Declarer now had two spade, three club tricks and two red aces. A diamond finesse was needed to provide extra tricks. So, South played a diamond to the queen which East won to cash two spades to beat the contract.

Can you see what South did wrong? Although West had done the bidding for the opposition, the danger hand for declarer was East. There were five danger cards for declarer, the two black aces, the two red kings and the J. (in the event, the long spade suit proved equally as dangerous.) South could not afford to lose them all.

Although West had most of the opposition points, there was still room for East to hold one of the danger cards. Had East two quick entries, then the contract seemed doomed. If it were a black ace, there was nothing declarer could do to keep East off lead but then the diamond finesse should work, giving declarer no problems. It was unlikely East held K. What about the K? Declarer probably needed at least two diamond tricks. South should have attacked diamonds early, just in case East had this danger card.

As you can see below, once the K was removed from the East hand, the spade suit would not be a danger. The defence could only take the two aces and two red kings.

 

 

 Had the spades been 4-4,  and declarer played on black suits, West could almost certainly engineer a spade entry for East to lead a heart through declarer before a diamond finesse can be taken. Thus, taking the diamond finesse early is unlikely to cost declarer whatever the lie of the suits.

A cunning East might duck the first diamond. South must be careful as any attempt to return to the South hand for a second finesse would prove disastrous. After that good play by East, the winning line is to cash A and concede a diamond. Had West held the K, the only danger to declarer would be if East had the A and 5 spades. On the actual lie, declarer can take 4 diamond tricks, three club tricks after conceding the ace, two spades and the A though the defence can take the K and restrict South to 9 tricks.

That is the situation if East ducks the K. We asked you to recognize the danger hand and to decide what to play at trick 2. Failure to play on diamonds early would have spelt immediate disaster. If you still failed because of East’s duck, you can just compliment the defence on the good opening lead (had West led a low heart, you do just knock out the two black aces to come to at least 9 tricks) and the duck of the K. Sometimes, they just do get their defence spot on.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

Go Back View All News Items