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The Trojan Horse.

Putting them off the Scent: for less experienced players and others.

We saw yesterday that when you are in 4 of a major missing three cashing aces, you want to avoid any further losers if you can. There is one danger to your contract which is often unavoidable but you can try to avert that danger from becoming reality.

 

2NT promised 4+ spades and was forcing to game. 4 showed a minimum opener with no singleton or void.

West leads 4. Any ideas?

Certainly, one additional danger is that of losing a trump trick to the queen. If you get that far into the play of the board without losing any more tricks than the three aces, you will have to make a decision.

It is inconceivable that you will lose more than one trick in each side-suit. So, what’s the added danger, then? Why, a ruff! At one table, declarer played low from dummy and from their hand when the A was played at trick 1. Back came 10 (suggesting a switch to the higher unplayed side-suit)and West ruffed. Within a flash West had played a low heart to East’s A and West got to ruff a second diamond before laying down A to finish a successful defence, down 2, a miserable time for the declarer.

 

“Inevitable” South might say. “Not my lucky night.” It was certainly "not the night" of any declarer who received that lead after North had bid diamonds and South had supported them. Open book!  That was certainly not South's night but could they have made it so?

A bit of subterfuge perhaps? The most common such approach is to throw Q under the ace, since dummy’s honours will take care of the remaining diamond tricks. The success of this ploy will depend how East reads the lead of the 4 from in this case say 432 if the queen is a genuine card. The fact that East was told that South has no singleton makes the chance of success much less likely.

At another table, South tried a different approach, that of covering the opening lead with J from dummy. Again, this should not have worked, or not eventually but it did. In fact, the only plausible reason to switch was that both West and South had doubleton diamonds… but would West have really led 4 from Q4 doubleton? That really would be deception!

In the event East switched at trick 2 to a highish club won by West who played back a highish heart which East won. There did not seem much left for East to do but play back T, surely safe. However, a second club was followed by a very quick discovery of where the Q was and 10 tricks were made.

On some days, the play of the J (trying to pretend they do not hold Q) would be more successful than South throwing Q. Certainly, where South had denied a singleton, they were in real trouble. Ultimately, although there are times when you should not, simply returning the suit led by your partner, is so often a huge winner. Deception by a declarer in these situations works more often than it should.

Next time you are not sure whether a declarer is telling a little “porky”, check out your partner’s holding if indeed they are telling the truth and like East above, they are likely to find that the evidence just does not add up.  

Bid ‘em up: play ‘em right

You have reached a slam, uncontested in the auction. Plan the play on the lead of 9.

 

Richard Solomon

 

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