PLAY AND DEFEND BETTER: FOR IIMPROVING PLAYERS

3NT vs 4Spade-small ?

North dealer both vulnerable

                                   Spade-small AQT964

                                   Heart-small 864

                                   Diamond-small Q

                                   Club-small J63

Spade-small KJ82                                                      Spade-small 5

Heart-small T3                                                          Heart-small AKJ52

Diamond-small J85                                                        Diamond-small T9762

Club-small Q872                                                     Club-small T5

                                  Spade-small73      

                                  Heart-small Q97

                                  Diamond-small AK43

                                  Club-small 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 THeart-small and first round duck due to the favourable location of the AKHeart-small and KJSpade-small by double finessing in Spade-small after unblocking QDiamond-small. However, it should be noted even with a heart lead and East playing off the top two Heart-small and giving partner a ruff Declarer will make 4Spade-small by taking the same double finesses in Spade-small. So should North/South be in 3NT or 4Spade-small?

If playing in 4Spade-small however, after the ruff Declarer may favour finessing the QSpade-small if they assume spades were originally 3 - 2 and as it seems West is more likely to have KSpade-small after East are marked with AKJxxHeart-small. 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 JSpade-small on the first round of Spade-small. When the QSpade-small holds declarer may be deceived to think they no longer need the second finesse and lay down the ASpade-small. A similar deceptive play may also work against 3NT by playing the JSpade-small on the first round of Spade-small. When the QSpade-small holds a greedy declarer may then try to run the whole suit by laying down the ASpade-small to drop the marked KSpade-small 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 Heart-small.

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 4Spade-small 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

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