PLAY AND DEFEND BETTER: FOR IIMPROVING PLAYERS

3NT vs 4 ?

North dealer both vulnerable

                                    AQT964

                                    864

                                    Q

                                    J63

 KJ82                                                       5

 T3                                                           AKJ52

 J85                                                         T9762

 Q872                                                      T5

                                  73      

                                   Q97

                                   AK43

                                   AK94                                        

This week Richard  gave a good example of trying to make lemonade when it appears you have a lemon. After South played in 3NT they were able to make game after the lead of the T and first round duck due to the favourable location of the AK and KJ by double finessing in  after unblocking Q. However, it should be noted even with a heart lead and East playing off the top two  and giving partner a ruff Declarer will make 4 by taking the same double finesses in . So should North/South be in 3NT or 4?

If playing in 4 however, after the ruff Declarer may favour finessing the Q if they assume spades were originally 3 - 2 and as it seems West is more likely to have K after East are marked with AKJxx. However a very good declarer may still take the double finesse. If West has reason to think they were playing against a very good declarer they could attempt a prexemptive counter defensive move by making the deceptive play of playing the J on the first round of . When the Q holds declarer may be deceived to think they no longer need the second finesse and lay down the A. A similar deceptive play may also work against 3NT by playing the J on the first round of . When the Q holds a greedy declarer may then try to run the whole suit by laying down the A to drop the marked KJ  doubleton instead of continuing with their original double finesse plan which would seem to now offer only an average result after East ducked the first .

If playing teams the decision to play in 3NT will only cost a maximum of 1 imp. In pairs, however, the reality is for this board that many pairs will not be in game and of those in game many will go light playing this tricky board. So bidding and making 3NT would be likely to still be a 60% board whereas bidding and making 4 might be an 80% board. Only the play on the other boards in the session or match can determine if these small losses of opportunity prove to be significant or not.

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 11 Dec 2018 at 01:24AM