Board 55

Board 55 (Click to download pbn file)
Both sides vulnerable

♠ 10 6 5 4 2 ♥ J ♦ A J 7 4 ♣ J 9 4

I pass in first seat. LHO opens one spade--pass--one notrump to me. I pass. LHO bids three hearts, which RHO raises to four. Everyone passes, and partner leads the six of diamonds.

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

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

This is an awkward auction in standard methods. Opener might have only four hearts, but he probably has five more often than not.  So, with three-card support,  responder is never sure whether to raise or to bid three notrump. I used to play that three hearts promised five hearts and that three clubs could be artificial. It showed either clubs or a hand with exactly four hearts. I've forgotten how the continuations worked. It was one of John's gadgets, which we of course abandoned when we began playing a forcing club system.

Declarer plays low from dummy. Should I play the jack or the ace? Before we can answer that, we must decide where our four tricks will come from. My singleton jack of hearts gives me hope that partner has two trump tricks, say, king-ten third or queen-nine fourth. If so, we still need two tricks in the minors. My diamond ace is one trick. The other will have to be the club ace or the diamond king in partner's hand. (The club king is probably not good enough, since declarer can pitch a club on the queen of diamonds.) Given that, let's try constructing hands for declarer where one play or the other is necessary. Let's try the diamond jack first.

(A) ♠ K Q J x x ♥ A K x x ♦ x x ♣ A K

The diamond jack looks like the right idea. If I play the ace of diamonds and a switch to a club, declarer should make it.

(B) ♠ K Q J x x ♥ A K Q 10 ♦ x x ♣ K x

Now I must play the diamond jack and continue diamonds for a tap. If I play the diamond ace, we can no longer beat it.

Can we find hands where the diamond ace is necessary?

(C) ♠ K Q J x x ♥ A Q x x x ♦ K x ♣ K

I must win the diamond ace and return a club. If I play the diamond jack at trick one, declarer can win with his king, play a spade to the ace, a heart to the ace, and play spades, pitching dummy's diamonds. Note this example is a little contrived. I had to give declarer a singleton king of clubs to give him enough high cards for his bidding.

(D) ♠ K Q J x x ♥ A K 9 8 ♦ K x ♣ K x

It's certainly easier to beat this if I take the diamond ace at trick one. Can we survive if I play the jack? We'll certainly survive if declarer draws two rounds of trumps.  What if declarer plays a spade to the ace, plays one round of trumps, then starts spades? I think he can make it now, but give partner either the eight or nine of hearts and I don't think he can. "I think" may sound rather noncommittal.  But, since my goal here is simply to judge which of two plays is more apt to be necessary, that's good enough for now. To delve deeper than that on a layout that is merely hypothetical is not good use of my time. The important thing to note is that, if I play the jack and it loses to the king, we still have chances.

In general, it seems playing the jack is a good idea if partner has the diamond king and a bad idea, though not necessarily fatal, if he doesn't. One factor to consider is partner's opening lead itself. I suspect partner will tend to lead his better minor on this auction. This is particularly true if it appears he has unexpected trump tricks, in which case our goal may well be not to let cashable tricks disappear. On hand (D), for example, and possibly even on (C), partner might choose to lead the ace of clubs in preference to a diamond.

I've convinced myself. I play the diamond jack. Naturally, declarer wins with the king. He cashes the heart ace as partner plays the six, then plays the king of clubs, on which partner plays the five. It appears declarer is 5-4-2-2. I play the nine, since true count may clue declarer in to the bad trump break. Declarer cashes the club ace, and I play the jack. He plays a spade--eight--ace--deuce, and cashes the ten of clubs, pitching the deuce of diamonds. He continues with the club six. I pitch the four of diamonds; declarer pitches the spade seven; partner, the diamond five. If partner isn't bothering to ruff this, he must have natural trump tricks. Indeed he does. And, unfortunately, he has three of them:

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

It's embarrassing to duck the setting trick at trick one, but I'm not sure I did the wrong thing. I still think partner was more likely to have the diamond king than the club ace. And how likely was it that we could beat this when he had neither?

I do think partner might have helped me by leading the nine of diamonds. Against a suit contract, when you are leading a suit in which both you and partner know that declarer may well have a singleton, it's often a good idea to lead highest from four small. It may prevent partner from letting declarer score a singleton honor, and, assuming partner knows you can't have a doubleton, it clarifies the count immediately. Third best from four doesn't clarify the count until the second round. When declarer is short in the suit, that may be too late. One thing you can't do, however, is to lead second highest from four small. With 97xx, an attitude seven is sure to confuse partner. It will simply look like third best from honor-nine-seven and partner will never even suspect declarer has a singleton honor. If you're unwilling to lead the nine, you should lead a normal third best.

I'm curious to see what my opponent does at the other table. He gets the same auction and lead. Declarer plays low from dummy, and East plays... the jack. If he had played the ace, I would have to rethink this problem. But Jack examined far more layouts than I did and concluded that the jack was the percentage play, presumably without even considering inferences from partner's lead. If my judgment and Jack's analysis suggest the same play, chances are that play is correct. The reason we were both wrong is that declarer's hearts were unusually poor for this auction. In fact, I would go so far as to say that declarer didn't have a three heart bid at all. My choice would be two notrump, though I could live with two hearts.

I decided to test my theory about partner's opening lead. (That's one of the nice things about Jack. You don't have to ask him what he would have done with such-and-such a hand and trust he'll give you an honest answer. You can simply rearrange the deal and find out.) I changed his hearts to queen-ten fourth and gave him the club ace. In fact, he did lead the club ace from that hand. If I had any lingering doubts about my play, they're gone now. I have to chalk this result up to bad luck.

Me: -620
Jack: -620

Score on Board 55: 0 IMPs
Total: +134 IMPs