PLAY & DEFEND BETTER: FOR IMPROVING PLAYERS
North deals
None vulnerable
KQT6
KJ7
9872
83
832 J954
Q2 T5
KQ AT65
AKQ972 J65
A7
A98643
J43
T4
Bidding:
N. E. S. W
- - 2 3
3 - - -
At the table West lead the A playing over leads. However, this is an interesting board as it provides a good example of the benefits of the alternative approach of making underleads with touching honours (i.e the lead of an honour promises the higher touching honour or is a singleton or doubleton).
After the alternative lead of the K East playing count plays 5. West continues with Q East knows at this point West also has the A plays 6 showing 3+ after South follows suit.
West now switches to K with East playing 5. Now when West continues with the Q East knows with absolute certainty West has a doubleton as they didn’t initially underlead the Q so after overtaking with the Athere is no hesitation in leading another for West to ruff for the setting trick, even if South attempts the deceptive play of dropping the J under the A to threaten a ruff.
So for this particular board utilising underleads East has just a little more certainty to overtake the Q and then continue to defeat the contract. Perhaps another lead style option for the improving player to consider ....
Latest Posts on this Thread
- STANLEY ABRAHAMS31 May 2019 at 06:26PM
East playing count plays the 5 of clubs, you write.
Improving players (and all others) are not taught count. Just attitude.(Actually reverse attitude).
So it is not very easy to teach underleads when such a simple thing as count is too much.
"I may not know if I like a suit, but I am usually able to count the number of cards in the suit"
- Scott Smith06 Jun 2019 at 04:00PM
Sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be.
The correct diamond play doesn’t need any signalling method.
If west leads king then queen of diamonds, overtaking the queen with the ace and playing a small diamond back is 100%. Either:
- West has the 13th diamond: nothing is lost by overtaking the Q and playing a small diamond - there is no haste to attack any other suit and even a pitch on the third round cannot help declarer (say declarer started with Jx and picks the third round is standing up to the 9 so discards); or
- West is doubleton KQ: in which case you get to ruff the third round before it can be pitched on spades.
The hand is an example of keeping an eye on the big picture, and not getting too caught up on what you think the carding signal means. You also cater for partner having got any agreement wrong, which is always handy to cover off if you can... just in case.
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