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No Second Chance

They, your opponents, had one chance to beat your 4S contract. Even then, they might not have been successful. However, try not to give them a second chance if you can. They may not turn down the opportunity twice.

 

With a 5-card spade suit, North was worth a value raise to 3, despite three less useful jacks in their 10 high card points. Sometimes, even jacks can be useful, too! South had an easy raise to game.

West led 7, playing 2^nd and 4^th leads. This went to East’s A with East returning 8, West following with a second heart. (They hold  10) Over to you?

A normal looking contract, even with the prescribed 25 high card points between your hand and dummy. Looking at losers, there’s the A, one or two clubs and the perennial problem of finding the trump king when you have 10 trumps between your two hands. You have been in worse! If they would be kind enough to lead a diamond at some point, they could find the queen for you and that could be a quick club discard.

However, they led a heart to the ace with East certainly not looking at losing the post-mortem by returning partner’s suit. A low club switch would have put you under immediate pressure. Declarer then took a rather dangerous route of winning in hand, squashing dummy’s J to take the spade finesse, the percentage line with the 10-card fit. However, East won with their king and then decided on that low club switch….

and declarer misguessed, losing two club tricks to be down 1. That was a pity because these were the four hands:

 

The king or the jack?

I am no expert on guessing the lie of the missing club honours in this deal (I can log up a reasonable list of failures) but it does seem a better bet to play the opening leader for the ace. Had they held the queen and not the ace, there is every chance that they might have made a slightly more attacking initial lead than the heart. They chose the heart lead and not the club lead. Therefore, play them for the ace.

If they had them both, it’s not your day! One other point is to make up your mind before the switch happens. You must surely be aware of the possibility. If, for instance, you play the king in tempo, it may appear to West that you have KQ and they may switch. Playing the king after a three minute “think tank” would convince even the most unsuspecting West as to where the queen was.

The real crux of the deal

However, in respect of the success of the contract, this is all rather a “red herring”. While not 100% cold, declarer missed a very good line which would almost guarantee success no matter where the K or AQ were.

The danger hand

Really, the only danger to the contract, apart from a possible heart ruff, would be for East to lead a small club. So, if East could be kept off lead, all the better.

You actually want the spade finesse to work…but you are not going to take it!

At trick two, play low from the South hand. West’s 10 looks like as though their lead was from a three or four card suit headed by the 10. Lay down the A. Should the king fall, you will be very happy. Yet, it does not.

Thus, play a diamond to your ace and play the K. When both opponents follow, you are home. Next comes the Q and two of dummy’s clubs will have been discarded. The defence can only take their two aces and the K.

This line is not 100% because if the trumps broke 3-0, you might have to draw trumps, not wishing for a defender to be ruffing a heart with the remaining small trump.

However, this line can never be worse than taking the trump finesse and can as the above wrong line taken demonstrated, be much much better. It is a safer line even if West had held the K. (So, you may have cost your side an overtrick.Even playing Pairs, that is a small price than conceding an under-trick!)

East had their chance to under-lead the A at trick 2. OK, they did not have it! Do not give them a second chance just in case they did.

So, you are defending 4. You have a nice easy lead and seemingly an even easier continuation.

 

You lead K which holds as does the Q with your partner playing 7 and then 5, natural count or encouragement. Declarer plays 9 and then 4. What next?

May Day will reveal all.

Richard Solomon 

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