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Careful!

I am sure you always are when trying to make a contract. Today’s deal gives those who are just a little casual the opportunity to fall short of their target, that of making their game.

 

 

West opens with a Weak 2. You call your strong 2NT with weakness in one suit, though not hearts. However, partner raises to 3NT with plenty of cover in that suit. West leads a safe-looking Q. Over to you.

The master-plan would seem to be to take 4 club tricks, 2 in each major along with A for 9 tricks. We are playing Teams but it’s still nice to make an overtrick if possible. We certainly do not want to be seen making less than 9.

We know the heart break is 6-2, not immediately threatening. Indeed, with East likely to have more clubs than West, the heart suit does not pose an immediate threat.

Safety measure no 1. Duck that opening lead. Better to duck immediately just in case the deal produces some surprises. If West continues with J as is likely, then East will not have a heart left when they win the first round of clubs.

Safety measure no 2. Win the heart continuation and duck a club to East. You would not want to have to lose the lead twice to West, who would be able to remove the K and then to cash some winning hearts. Not a nice thought.

You lead 4 and when West contributes 2, you play 6 from dummy. East wins this with K and returns a low spade.

Safety measure no 3. Do not finesse. You cannot risk the finesse losing with West playing Q as your entry to dummy (K) would have to be played before your four club tricks are established. Also, you do not want to have to play the next round of clubs from dummy. No worries if there is a 3-2 club break …but

 

Safety Measure No 4. A rude surprise for anyone playing A or any club from dummy on the second round of the suit instead of playing 4 from hand. The appearance of K from East on the first round of the suit was a warning though we all know that East could be having a bit of fun with other club honours. The fun was for another day. Unless the second round of clubs was played from the South hand, with 7 inserted from the North hand, the contract would fail.

It might be anti-percentage though West could have and indeed did start with QJ52. Play the clubs correctly and declarer can lose a club to West but can re-enter dummy with that carefully preserved K to cash three more winners and nine tricks in all.

Yes, the spade finesse would have worked but it was one you could ill afford to take.

safety measures

So, four rather important safety measures, three of which were necessary this time to come to 9 tricks whether you were playing Pairs or Teams. Here’s hoping you took them all.

Escaping from “the hole”

It’s easy to wish you had bid something else first time though your first action seemed reasonable at the time and probably still does. So, you may have “dug a hole” for yourself but how to escape from it?

 

 

It was hardly a crime to bid 1 first time, just in case our partner’s second bid was 2…but it was not! So, what next? You are ace-less and pretty close to being “heartless”. You are playing Pairs.. and any change if Teams was the game?

Richard Solomon

 

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