Free Weekly Instant Tournament - December 13 - Board 3

Board 3
Opponents vulnerable

♠ Q 2  ♥ A  ♦ K Q J 8 5 2  ♣ A 8 3 2

I open with one diamond, partner bids one heart. I have five diamond tricks, two aces, and half a trick from the fourth club. Seven and half tricks is worth a three-diamond bid, but with six-four, it's better to bid your four-card suit first. We could miss a club slam if I rebid three diamonds.

I rebid two clubs, and partner shows a preference with two diamonds. Now I bid three diamonds, essentially showing a hand worth three diamonds on the previous round but with a club suit on the side. Partner obligingly bids three notrump. Everyone passes, and RHO leads the deuce of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
	1 ♦	Pass	1 ♥
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	3 ♦	Pass	3 NT
(All pass)

Partner's three notrump is a bit pushy without a fitting diamond honor. I might have passed three diamonds with his hand, but three notrump isn't a bad spot. If diamonds split, I have eight tricks. I can try a spade finesse for my ninth. If the opponents don't shift to clubs when they win the diamond ace, I can even afford to lose the spade finesse. The defense will be able to take only a diamond, a spade, and two hearts.

I win in dummy with the heart ace. East plays the six. I want the six to look encouraging, so I must conceal the five. The seven is a better falsecard than the eight. If West thinks the six is high, then it would deny the seven, so the seven is "the card I'm known to hold." Or, more accurately, "the card I want to be known to hold." Accordingly, I play the seven.

At trick two, I lead the diamond king from dummy. East plays the four, and I follow with the seven to conceal the fact that East's four is low. West wins with the ace.

West continues with the six of diamonds. I win with dummy's queen, and East follows with the nine.

The fact that West is defending passively rather than try to cash heart tricks suggests he knows I have only eight cashing tricks. He can't know that unless he has both black kings. If I needed to, I would try to maneuver some kind of endplay to avoid the spade finesse. But, since the opponents have only two winners to cash, I can afford to lose the finesse.

Do I have any shot at an overtrick if the opponents don't cash their hearts when West wins the spade king? Maybe. The defense doesn't know I have four spades. If I cash diamonds, someone may pitch a spade from four. Can I afford to cash them? If I cash two diamonds, I'll be down to this position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ Q 2 ♥  ♦ 5 2 ♣ A 8 3 2
	SOUTH Robot ♠ A J 7 3 ♥ J 10 8 ♦ -- ♣ J

What do I pitch on the next diamond? I can't afford a second heart discard, and pitching a spade gives up on the overtrick. So I will have to take the spade finesse now. Since cashing two diamonds won't apply much pressure, perhaps I'm better off losing the spade finesse immediately before West gathers more information.

I lead the spade queen--six--three--king. West unfortunately continues with the eight of spades. The spade continuation killed the only entry to my hand and any chance of creating problems for the defense. I don't see anything I can do other than cash my tricks. Making three.

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

+400 is worth a surprising 89%. Most of the field is rebidding two diamonds over one heart. I don't understand. Even if you have some grudge against the club suit, why not bid three diamonds? Two diamonds is a massive underbid. What are they teaching beginning bridge players these days that a jump rebid in your suit shows? 

I realize not everyone thinks in terms of playing tricks. But what I learned as a novice from Goren's Contract Bridge Complete was that a jump rebid showed 16 to 19 total points (HCP and distribution) and a good six-card suit. Even after deducting a point for the unprotected spade queen, this hand is still worth 18 total points, so it's not even close. It's a maximum three diamond bid by Goren's standard. I need to pick up a beginner's book and see what they're teaching them.

West had some difficult problems defending three notrump. His first problem was on opening lead. He did well not to lead the unbid suit, which would have given the defense no chance. Whether a heart or a club lead is better is unclear. A club attacks dummy's entry but may simply give a trick away. As it happens, a club lead makes the defense easy. But, since dummy is very likely to hold a singleton heart, West's choice of a heart is reasonable, and suffices if the defense is accurate thereafter.

Let's sit in West's seat and try to gauge his best defense. What should we do after winning the diamond ace? It's hard to see declarer's bidding game without the spade ace. If he has it, he has eight tricks. We could try to cash three heart tricks, then exit with a diamond and wait for the setting trick. But if declarer has five hearts, cashing hearts sets up his ninth trick in the heart suit. So for that defense to work, I would need to find partner with queen-ten or queen-jack fourth of hearts. That's pretty optimistic. And partner might have signaled with the ten or queen from that holding.

Since a heart continuation doesn't look promising. It looks as if our options are to switch to a club, hoping partner has the queen, or to defend passively by exiting with a diamond. If declarer has the spade jack, we might as well switch to a club. A passive defense would give declarer time to set up his ninth trick in spades. But if partner has the spade jack, there is no reason to risk a club shift. A passive defense is better.

In short, a club switch is right if partner has the club queen and declarer has the spade jack, and a diamond exit is right if declarer has the club queen and partner has the spade jack. That looks like a toss-up. But is it? 

A passive defense needs more than just those two cards to be right. It also needs partner to have the club jack. If declarer has it, he can simply take a club finesse. In fact, if declarer reads the layout, it also need partner to have the heart queen. If declarer has it, he can run diamonds, coming down to this position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ Q 2 ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ A 8 3 2
WEST Robot ♠ K 10 ♥ K 9 ♦ -- ♣ K 9		EAST Robot ♠ J ♥ x x x ♦ -- ♣ J x
	SOUTH Robot ♠ A x ♥ Q x ♦ -- ♣ Q x

Now ace and a spade endplays us. 

So a passive defense is playing for four cards to be right, whereas a club shift is playing for only two cards to be right. A club shift looks like the right defense. 

Actually, maybe we can do better. At least if our partner were a human rather than a robot. If we aren't going to defend passively, we don't need the diamond for an exit card. So we can duck the first diamond to get more information. Partner's first diamond should be count. But if partner began with three diamonds, he has the ten and nine left and can give suit preference.

If partner plays the nine, we can't be sure he has the club queen, since he has to signal one way or the other, and he may have nothing to say. But one thing we can be sure of: If he plays the ten, he doesn't have the club queen. He wouldn't go out of his way to play a high diamond with something in clubs. So if he plays the ten, we can try a heart switch in desperation. Maybe we can run hearts after all. Or maybe he has the heart queen and jack-ten of clubs and can win and put a club through.

So that's my plan: Duck the first diamond and win the second. Then play a club unless partner's carding tells me a club isn't going to work. 

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