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Bid ‘em Up: Play ‘em Safe.

“Well, I kept my part of the equation” muttered North as he put down dummy in the grand slam contract to an expectant South, who would like nothing better than to say “thanks” and lay down their hand with a statement like “drawing trumps” as the world sees 13 winners. That was not the reality, though. South had their piece of the equation ahead of them.

 

 

“Thanks, partner. Lovely hand.” You kind of mean it. You are in 7after partner opened 2. West leads T and you need the first 13 tricks!

Which card do you play at trick 2? What’s the plan? The heart break is not, must not, be extreme.

North was certainly not holding back in the bidding. They followed up their marginal 2 opener (too good for the 1 level and having 6 hearts in a balanced 20-22 opener could lead to a very bad spot, like 2NT!)

Key Card showed up the K (5) and the ask for the trump queen was successful though 6 denied any of the non-trump kings. North was not worried. They had a nice 6-card suit on the side. A decent partner would have Q, or a singleton or something useful there.

Reality was a couple of queens elsewhere but at least the bonus of a decent trump suit. So, to the play.

The grand slam is reasonable, cold on any 4-2 heart break if spades are 2-2 though a little more care would be required with a 3-1 break especially with the J in the West hand. Of course, if hearts break evenly, there will be no problems. A 4-0 trump break? Awkward but not terminal as long as you take the 100% safety play of leading low at trick 2 towards the South hand. You can then take a spade finesse necessary for success.

If West holds  J854, a 3-3 heart break would be preferable, though when you play to K at trick 2, it is East who has all four.

You know as a last resort you can fall back on a diamond finesse to avoid one loser (if successful!)  but it is the heart suit which will bring salvation. As you cannot afford to ruff a club in dummy (you need that other small trump in dummy to take the trump finesse), you need 4 discards on the hearts… hearts 3-3 or one extra chance, the doubleton Q.

Arguably, with East having 4 spades and presumably some length in clubs, the heart length is more likely to be with West. There is, therefore, a case to take a first round heart finesse playing West for  Qxxx. A tough choice.

Our declarer decided to play hearts from the top…and the world soon felt a much better place.

 

 

Doubleton 10 in the East hand would not be good enough as declarer would need one more entry than they have to flush out the Q and then run the remaining hearts.

However, as the cards lay, it is all systems go, though the order of play is vital.

Ruff a low heart next. Then a spade to the ace and two more rounds of trumps via the finesse. Finally, cross back to dummy with a diamond to the ace (tease West on the way by playing Q, though you are always playing the A!) and discard three losers on the established hearts. 7 made.

“That’s my part done too” quipped South to which North could only add “It would have been over much quicker if you had selected the Q instead of those useless minor ones!”

A little care and a little good fortune produced a grand result.

What Action to take?

 

Yes, 3 is natural.

2 is a standard Weak 2. What action would you take?

Would it make any difference if 2 showed spades and another suit? (any other suit?)

See you on Wednesday.

Richard Solomon

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