Board 1

Board 1
Neither vulnerable

♠ 10 6 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ K 7 2 ♣ A Q 8 5 2

Partner opens one spade, I bid two clubs, and partner bids two hearts. I am not a fan of playing two-over-ones as game forcing (quirk number one), but it is certainly convenient on this deal. I can bid a forcing two notrump to give partner a chance to show extra length in either major. Over two notrump, partner bids three hearts, and I raise to four.

	NORTH ♠ 10 6 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ K 7 2 ♣ A Q 8 5 2
	SOUTH ♠ K Q J 8 4 ♥ A 9 6 5 4 ♦ 10 ♣ J 3

West	North	East	South
			1 ♠
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♥
Pass	2 NT	Pass	3 ♥
Pass	4 ♥	(All pass)

West leads the queen of diamonds. What is your plan?

If everything splits normally, there is no problem. I have ten tricks without the club finesse. The main danger appears to be a bad trump break. Even a 4-1 trump break that I can pick up (stiff honor by West) will present a problem, since I am in danger of being tapped out. Since there is no particular reason for West to be underleading the ace of diamonds, my best chance to stop a tap is to duck, hoping East is short in diamonds.

Suppose I duck the first diamond, ruff the second, then cash the king and queen of hearts, discovering a stiff honor on my left. I could then knock out the ace of spades and, when the opponents try to tap me with a third diamond, pitch a club, hoping East is now out of diamonds. This isn’t necessarily the best line, but starting this way doesn’t seem to burn any bridges. I don’t see any gain in playing spades early. And I certainly can’t afford to take an early club finesse. If it loses, I could go down with every suit breaking normally. So I might as well start off this way and worry about finding a way to improve on this line should a four-one break actually happen.

I play low, and East follows with the eight. West continues with the jack of diamonds, I play low again, East plays the three, and I ruff. West presumably has the nine of diamonds, since East would have signaled with the nine if he had it. I don’t know much about the opponents’ carding, and I can’t ask (another disadvantage of playing against the computer), but if the three is present count, then East began with A83 or with four or six diamonds. I intend to take note of East’s diamond length later to help me decode their carding on future deals. In my own opinion, his card here should be random. West will find out the count soon enough, and there doesn’t appear to be any need for a suit-preference signal. But if the opponents are the type to give present count routinely, it would be nice to know.

I play a heart to the king. West plays the deuce; East follows with the ten. This doesn't look good. On the queen of hearts, East plays the four of diamonds; West, the three of hearts. I now know East began with five or six diamonds, since he would not block the suit by pitching down to a stiff ace. The feared four-one trump split came to pass, but the length is behind me, so my planned counter isn’t even an option. What now?

Since I have an unexpected trump loser, I now need the club king to be onside to come to ten tricks. My basic plan is to knock out the spade ace, leaving a trump in dummy to stop the tap in diamonds, then start cashing spades until West ruffs. Let’s step through the play to see if this is going to work. Suppose I lead the spade ten and it holds. I now continue with a spade, someone wins with the ace and taps me with a third round of diamonds. I continue spades, reaching this position:

Diagram 1

	NORTH ♠ -- ♥ 7 ♦ -- ♣ A Q 8 5
	SOUTH ♠ J 8 ♥ A ♦ -- ♣ J 3

As long as West has one more spade and the club king, I'm home. I cash the jack of spades, then lead the eight. West ruffs, but no return can hurt me. If he leads a diamond, I can ruff in dummy, pitching a club, and take the last two tricks with my two aces. If he leads a trump or a club, I can draw his last trump and take two club tricks. If West is out of spades, however, I'm in trouble. He ruffs the jack of spades and taps dummy with a diamond. I can pitch a club as I ruff, but I can't get back to my hand to draw the last trump and cash the fifth spade. To cater to West's having only three spades, I need to take the club finesse before reaching this position. Then, in the endgame, I will have:

Diagram 2

	NORTH ♠ -- ♥ 7 ♦ -- ♣ A 8 5
	SOUTH ♠ J 8 ♥ A ♦ -- ♣ J

Now I’m in good shape. If West ruffs the penultimate spade and leads a diamond, I can ruff in dummy, pitching the last spade, and score my two aces. Unfortunately, it’s awkward to take the club finesse, because I am short of entries to my hand. I will need to burn the ten of spades to create an extra entry: Spade to the king--club finesse--then ten of spades, overtaking if the ace doesn't appear. This is the wrong way to handle spades only if West began with ace-nine-fourth. The prodigal spade play works against any other four-card holding by West, and it’s necessary if spades are three-three.

Accordingly, I lead a low spade to the king. East plays the three; and West, the deuce. Which club should I lead to take the finesse?

If the finesse wins, it doesn’t matter. If it loses, it might be convenient to have the jack of clubs as an entry to the spades. I lead the three of clubs - four - queen - nine. Now the ten of spades. East plays the five, I overtake with the queen, and West follows with the seven. I have reached this position:

Diagram 3

	NORTH ♠ -- ♥ 7 ♦ K ♣ A 8 5 2
	SOUTH ♠ J 8 4 ♥ A 9 ♦ -- ♣ J

Both opponents have played spades up the line. That, combined with East’s nine of clubs, makes it appear that West begin with a 3-4-4-2 pattern. I lead the four of spades, and West plays the nine. I pitch a club from dummy. East wins with the ace and leads the ace of diamonds. I ruff, reaching the position in diagram 2. Making four. The full deal:

	NORTH ♠ 10 6 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ K 7 2 ♣ A Q 8 5 2
WEST ♠ 9 7 2 ♥ J 8 3 2 ♦ Q J 9 5 ♣ K 4		EAST ♠ A 5 3 ♥ 10 ♦ A 8 6 4 3 ♣ 10 9 7 6
	SOUTH ♠ K Q J 8 4 ♥ A 9 6 5 4 ♦ 10 ♣ J 3

For future reference, I note that East did not give present count at trick two.

Not a particularly difficult hand, but a satisfying one nonetheless. I’m bothered by something, though. After reaching the position in diagram 3, I didn’t really give sufficient thought to the possibility of ruffing the third round of spades. I need four more tricks at that point. I can ruff, cash the club ace, ruff a diamond to my hand, and cash the trump ace. That’s four tricks. Is there any reason to prefer that line? Yes there is. What if West has ducked twice with ace-nine fourth of spades? It would be a foolish play, but you shouldn’t assume your opponents aren’t foolish if you don’t have to. Why adopt a 99% line when you have a 100% line available?

I expressed the hope that I wouldn’t make too many mistakes, but I couldn’t get past board one. Why did I get this wrong? Tunnel vision. I was fixated on the ending I had projected. I thought I needed dummy’s trump to stop the tap in diamonds, so I didn’t think I could afford to ruff the spade. Once East ducked the second spade, I should have stopped to recount my tricks. At least I made the contract. I suspect a lot of people would go down.

I now let the computer play the deal against itself. The auction is the same. West leads the queen of diamonds and declarer covers with the king (incorrectly in my opinion). East wins and continues diamonds. Declarer ruffs and leads a spade to the ten and ace. East plays a third diamond, and declarer ruffs. Declarer now cashes the ace and king of trump, discovering the bad break. He cashes two spades, discovering the three-three break. (If West had begun with four spades, he would be home: One more spade, two clubs, and the ace of hearts would bring the trick total to ten.) Declarer now plays a club to the queen, cashes the ace of clubs, and ruffs a club. If West were to follow, that would make ten tricks. But West overruffs and leads a diamond, promoting his last trump for down one.

As I said earlier, it's hard to see the point of playing spades at trick three. If the ten holds, you can't afford to continue spades for fear of a trump promotion. What’s the gain in playing one round of spades? Strangely, this is a mistake I would expect more from a human than from a computer. Setting up your side suit before touching trumps is a tactic that often works to overcome a bad trump break, so it's a natural-looking play, but it doesn’t hold up to analysis. It's the kind of trap a player who is on auto-pilot might easily fall into.

Me:     +420
Jack:    -50

Score on board 1: +10 IMPs
Total:- +10 IMPs