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Like a good meal, it’s all in the preparation.

It seems a shame to bid to a more than reasonable slam and then to fail somewhat unnecessarily. So, we are going to take a good deep breath as they have made their opening lead and we have been greeted with a pretty fair dummy. Remember:

 

 

West has led K which will almost certainly be from a sequence, KQT or maybe KQ, in either case probably with some smaller hearts, too.

So, what are problems? We are missing the Q. We have one heart loser in our hand (South). Dummy has helped a lot in the diamond suit though we are still missing the king. At least we have no club losers!  What can we do to keep our losers to no more than one? 

We will hope that the Q will fall under the ace or the king. With only four spades missing and no other information from the bidding, that is the best way to play this suit (where we have 9 cards missing the queen), to give us the best chance of no losers. What of the heart loser? Have you noticed that dummy has the A (as well as Q) and that since we have only one club, the king, we can discard the heart loser on the second round of clubs?

Notice that there is no point in throwing two diamonds on the play of AQ. We would then still be left with a second diamond, 10 (as well as the heart loser)…and would have to take the diamond finesse. So, it is the heart we must discard, not any diamonds…at least not initially. Assuming we can discard our heart loser, we can take the diamond finesse (of K) as long as we start that suit from dummy.

So, we have developed a plan but it is not quite complete. We are going to play the K after winning the first trick with A. We are going to discard our small heart on the A…but we cannot afford to lose the lead first or else the defence will win a heart trick.

The only way to dummy, therefore, is by playing trumps….but we would like to play two rounds of trumps and  finish the second round in dummy, then to play that high club and only then take the diamond finesse.

Are you ready? A, then K and then A to be followed by J. Sometimes, defenders cover the jack with the queen even when they should play their low spade. (You can afford the jack only because you also have 10.) However, even if West plays a low spade on the second round, put up dummy’s king. Let’s look at all four hands:

 

West followed firstly with the 2 and played 8 under the jack (good play from West). If we knew West held the Q, we would finesse but we do not. So, we play K and get the bad news when East discards a small heart on the second round of spades.

We have to lose a trick to Q but not yet! Play A discarding your small heart and then play Q. As East has the K, you should make your contract. When the Q scores, you should play Q and discard your 8 as you were not to know that the 9 is to fall on the next round. Now play J and keep playing diamonds until West ruffs with Q.

That is the only trick the defence will make. We had average luck in that one good thing happened (diamond finesse) out of two. (The heart loser was imaginary as we could always discard it on the A.) When one out two good things happen, our success rate % is 75% and a 75% slam is worth bidding.

So, before playing to trick 1 in a suit contract, look for losers and how to avoid them. Sometimes, as above, you should play top cards in a certain order, as with the spade suit. Had South played A and then a spade to the king, they would not have made their contract, even if they had discarded the heart loser on the A when in dummy.

Good luck, therefore, on bidding and making your next slam. You do need a little good luck at the right time but just like fine dining, your preparation was vital.

Richard Solomon

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