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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Locating Honours.

We feature today two deals united by the fact that declarer’s success depends entirely on finding which opponent has a missing honour, in one case the queen and in the other the lowly jack. They are separated in time by 23 years as while one occurred very recently, the other was way back in the last century.

So, to yesterday’s problem:

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South Deals
None Vul
K 8 7 6
K J 8 3
A J 6
Q 5
   
N
W   E
S
   
 
J 5
9 7
K 10 7 5
A K J 7 4
West North East South
      1 NT
Pass 2  2  Pass
Pass Dbl Pass 3 
Pass 3 NT All pass  

 

After opening your very minor based weak no trump, East overcalls your partner’s Stayman enquiry. You retreat to 3Club-small though partner soon has you in game.

West leads Spade-small4 which goes to East’s Spade-smallQ. Next comes Spade-smallA with West following with Spade-small3 and then Spade-small10 from East on which you and West each throw a small heart. You win with Spade-smallK and start on the clubs but East has singleton 10 and on the next three rounds throws  Diamond-small2, Diamond-small3 and Heart-smallQ. Their signalling methods? Irrelevant. You and both defenders know West has very little...but how little?

You need 4 diamond tricks. How are you going to get them?

Or in other words, who has the Diamond-smallQ? East has a plan with the first couple of tricks going in their favour. Spades could be played by East for just one loser. Now, they just have to wait until they regain the lead, certainly if hearts are played as the overcall almost definitely places the Heart-smallA with East. East would presumably hope that they did not have to discard to too many rounds of clubs. However, they had to find three discards before a break in declarer’s tempo suggested no more. A couple of diamond discards preceded the Heart-smallQ.

Detective at work!

Detective at work.jpg

What is going on? Defenders usually will try to help out each other when discarding to a long suit. One of them has a key honour with the other trying not to discard from that suit so that declarer does not know which of them really has the honour.

Here, that key suit must almost certainly be diamonds though some days it was possible for South to hold Heart-smallA10x and need to find the Heart-smallQ. East would surely know that was not the case here. Yet, East has thrown two diamonds and a suspicious looking Heart-smallQ. Surely if East had more little hearts, they would throw them? They are guarding two more high spades along with the      Heart-smallA…and have already taken two tricks.

Unless East is being very cunning in their choice of discards, their shape should just about be known to South..five spades and one club for sure and it looks like just two hearts. For East to enter a live auction with just a five card spade after Stayman has been used, they must have a reasonable hand, not just in high cards but in shape as well. So, the way to play the diamond suit might not be the way you first expected when East threw a couple….

South Deals
None Vul
K 8 7 6
K J 8 3
A J 6
Q 5
4 3
10 6 5 4 2
8
9 8 6 3 2
 
N
W   E
S
 
A Q 10 9 2
A Q
Q 9 4 3 2
10
 
J 5
9 7
K 10 7 5
A K J 7 4
West North East South
      1 NT
Pass 2  2  Pass
Pass Dbl Pass 3 
Pass 3 NT All pass  

 

Small to the ace and run the Diamond-smallJ with confidence (“never in doubt”). One honour found!

Jack...where are you?

As declarer in our second deal, you have no counting to do. Indeed, the play of a 10 at the right time is all that is required. Let’s introduce the four players from back in 1997. Three of them are still very much top New Zealand players, Michael Cornell, Tom Jacob and Brian Mace. Tom and Brian were playing together then and still are. However, the fourth, Dwayne Crombie, another very talented player, gave up the game early this century because of work.

Dwayne was declarer on this particular deal… and rather wished he had never opened the bidding as he held :

Spade-small 108542

Heart-small AKJ85

Diamond-small QJ

Club-small 4

He opened 1Spade-small, comfortably complying with the Rule of 20, a great lead-directional bid!

Now, what’s the bid you would least like to hear from your partner? High on the list must be a 4Heart-small splinter bid casting big doubt on the worth of your best asset. After Dwayne  had resoundly said very loudly to his partner that he had no slam interest (perhaps passing 4Heart-smallmight have been the best approach!), partner then went on cue-bidding at the 5 level!

Some partners just never listen, not even ones as good as Michael Cornell. He finally stopped bidding at the 6-level(6Spade-small). Dwayne had to admit that Michael produced a decent dummy.

South Deals
Both Vul
A K Q 3
A K 10 2
K Q 10 8 3
   
N
W   E
S
   
 
10 8 5 4 2
A K J 8 5
Q J
4

 

 Tom Jacob (West) led Club-small9 which was covered by the Club-smallK losing to Brian Mace’s ace. Back came a second lowish club. All looked pretty good now for Dwayne but just in case Tom was also rather short in clubs, Dwayne used his best trump, that Spade-small10, to ensure he won the trick.

Indeed, he did and needed to as Tom discarded a diamond. With a sense of relief and triumph, at having located the Spade-smallJ in Brian’s hand, Dwayne announced to the table “My spades were not very good, but they were good enough.”

Next, he played a spade to the ace…but it was Brian (East) who discarded on the first round! There followed an almighty laugh from the player in the West seat, amid chortles of “he who laughs last, laughs loudest.” Mr Grosvenor at work. Who could believe where the Spade-smallJ really was...not that it mattered!

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

 

“Jack” …or Tom

Tom jacob 2019.jpg 

the loud laugher

Maybe Dwayne gave up bridge because his partner’s dummies were never good enough?

 Proving South Wrong

North Deals
E-W Vul
A Q J 5
10 7 4
A 4
Q J 10 4
   
N
W   E
S
 
6
A K J 9 8 3
Q J 6
A 3 2
West North East South
  Dummy You  
  1 NT 2  2 
Pass 3  Pass 4 
All pass      

 

North opens a Weak no trump. You overcall with South competing. North is maximum in support of spades and invites with South happy to accept.

 Your partner leads Heart-small5. You play Heart-smallK followed by the Heart-smallA on which declarer plays Heart-small6 followed by Heart-smallQ. Your partner plays   Heart-small2 on the second round.

What next?

See you on Queens Birthday.

Richard Solomon

 

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