All News

TALES OF AKARANA

A “Helping” hand

Your partner is there to help your side. Believe it! It’s true. Just because they do not always lead the suit you bid (they had their reasons, maybe valid ones!) or return your suit to give you a ruff (check out their reasons again!), the basic premise is correct.

Yet, there are times when no matter how helpful they are trying to be, they are just not correct. Try Board 26 from this week’s play.

I suspect some South players opened 1Spade-small with

Spade-smallA7654

Heart-small Q92

Diamond-small-

Club-smallAKJ74

and after an opposition double may have got a raise to 2Spade-smallfrom their partner. A couple of South’s came very unstuck when they raised the stakes to the three and four levels. They ended down in a very big heap when they were both doubled and found that -1400 was not a good save either against an opposition’s making game or especially a non-making one! When you see that North hand, it looks decidedly unattractive for a raise when your side is vulnerable.

Yet, despite the well-known pre-emptive value of getting the spades in early, I would not have ignored that lovely club suit and would have started there. However, our opponents did start with 1Spade-small which was not raised but still got into trouble. This was the auction with East being a somewhat unwilling declarer in 5Diamond-small:

West         North       East           South

                                                      1Spade-small

x                 Pass           2Diamond-small          3Club-small

3Spade-small             x                 4Diamond-small          Pass

5Diamond-small             All Pass

5Diamond-small was a “one for the road”. Partner will have something useful like the Club-smallK or a club shortage. This is what South saw after leading a high club.

Board 26
East Deals
Both Vul
   
8
A K 8
A K Q 9 8
Q 10 6 2
 
N
W   E
S
   
 
A 7 6 5 4
Q 9 2
A K J 7 4

 

A fair dummy..but your job is to beat the contract. Let’s say that at trick one, your partner played Club-small8 and declarer Club-small9. You are playing reverse signals. What do you do at trick two?

South continued with the Spade-smallA and then the Club-smallK…and the roof fell in!

 

Board 26
East Deals
Both Vul
Q 10 3
J 10 7 3
J 3 2
8 5 3
8
A K 8
A K Q 9 8
Q 10 6 2
 
N
W   E
S
 
K J 9 2
6 5 4
10 7 6 5 4
9
 
A 7 6 5 4
Q 9 2
A K J 7 4
5  by East

 

Declarer ruffed, drew trumps, ruffed the remaining club loser in their hand and discarded dummy’s heart loser on the Spade-smallK, making 11 tricks. At the table, there was some debate as to which club North should have played at trick 1 but, despite North’s double of 3Spade-small, was there any rush for South to play any further high black cards after the first high club?

The only reason to cash the Spade-smallA would be if dummy’s spade could be discarded on a fourth round of hearts. East’s very weak bidding indicated that they did not hold four hearts (surely hearts would have bid over the double or over 3Spade-small?) and if they did not, then there was little danger in South switching to that suit. The worse that could happen was that East held Jx or Jxx. It would be a sad day when a club were to be discarded on the Heart-smallK. Indeed, if North’s club card was correct count, then they had one or three. Thus, if East had more than one club, they had an original three! There would still be a second club loser.

Hold fire with that other high club just in case East’s Club-small9 was a true card.

South’s best exit at trick two was a trump but given the difficulty in finding one, a low heart might have been less of a risk than playing two more high black cards.  

Partner’s double had indicated something in spades but their failure to raise to 2Spade-small indicates it probably was not that much. Had South cashed the Spade-smallA and switched to the heart, declarer wins, draws trumps and can set up the Spade-small9 to discard one club while ruffing the other two in hand. Spade-smallK takes care of the heart loser.

It was very tempting for North to suggest that a spade was the best lead if defending 3NT. As you can see, it was not! “Only a suggestion” North might say. “I was just trying to be helpful”. South could only agree through gritted teeth !

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items

Our Sponsors
  • Tauranga City Council
  • TECT.jpg