Free Weekly Instant Tournament - November 14 - Board 3

Board 3
Opponents vulnerable

If you prefer, you can watch Alex untangle herself on this board on Gargoyle Chronicle's YouTube channel:

♠ A Q  ♥ K J 9 5 3  ♦ A Q 4  ♣ 9 5 3

With five hearts, a balanced hand, and 15 or 16 HCP, you pretty much have to open one notrump. If you open one heart, you have no rebid after a one-spade response. I have 16 HCP, so I open one notrump and buy it. LHO leads the four of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
			1 NT
(All pass)

I play low from dummy. East plays the king, and I win with the ace.

After the opponents knock out the spade queen, hearts will be the only entry to dummy's diamonds and diamonds will be the only entry to my hearts. When each of your suits is the entry to the other one, untangling yourself can be tricky.

Obviously I'm going to play a heart to the ace and start diamonds. Should I lead the jack or should I lead low to the queen? 

Leading the jack allows me to repeat the finesse if it works. If East has king doubleton or king third, I can then take five diamonds, five hearts (probably), and two spades--twelve tricks in all.

If I lead low to the queen and it holds, I can return to dummy to repeat the finesse. If East has king doubleton, this line yields the same five diamond tricks as leading the jack. But if East has king third, I have no way to return to dummy after the second finesse wins. I'll take three diamond tricks instead of five. So if the king is on my right, I prefer to lead the jack. 

What if West has the diamond king? If I lead the jack and the finesse loses, I’ve just blocked both red suits. I can’t run both of them—even if they don’t cash their club tricks. So low to the queen, keeping a small diamond in hand, looks tempting. That line works nicely if West takes his king and doesn’t find the club switch. I take four diamonds, five hearts, and two spades--eleven tricks. But is that defense likely? 

I'm marked with ace-queen of spades, the heart king, and the diamond queen. West can be pretty sure I have the diamond ace as well, else I would attack diamonds from my hand. That makes 15 HCP. I could have the club queen, but that requires me to have a maximum without the heart jack. And if West is looking at the club queen himself, he knows for sure I'm wide open in clubs. So I think he is quite likely to find the club switch.

And even if he doesn't, he can still give me problems. If he doesn't intend to switch to clubs, why win the diamond king at all? He can just duck and make me use my heart entry to repeat the finesse. Now the diamond suit is dead. Ducking with king third or fourth isn't hard. A wily defender might duck even with king doubleton. 

In short, if West has the diamond king, low to the queen might work. But West has two ways to counter. He can win and cash clubs, or he can duck. Unless he does neither, low to the queen doesn't do any better than leading the jack. And, since leading the jack is clearly better if East has the king, that's the play I'm going with.

I play the five of hearts--deuce--ace--four. Both opponents played low, but, since I concealed the three, West doesn't know that. If West could count on his partner to signal loudly, my leading the five wouldn't matter. But if the opponents insist on playing bloodless count, it would be remiss of me not to take advantage. (Yes, I know. The BBO robots don't give count at all when following suit--bloodless or otherwise. But it's good to stay in the habit of playing your spots correctly.) 

I lead the diamond jack--nine--four--king. This is the position, with West on lead:

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

West continues with the ten of hearts to dummy's queen, killing the entry while the diamonds are blocked. Perhaps leading the jack gained after all? Maybe blocking the diamonds tempted him to "punish" me and kept him off the club play.

I cash my diamonds. East discards the eight of clubs and the three of spades. 

Both opponents follow to the king of hearts. So West was three-four in the red suits and started with six black cards. He led the spade four, and the deuce is still out, so he might have started with five spades. If so, he's 5-3-4-1, which gives East six clubs. No. East would have balanced with six clubs. So I'm betting East is 4-3-4-2. 3-3-4-3 is also possible. The robots do like to lead three-card suits against notrump.

On the fourth heart, West pitches the seven of spade; East, the deuce. There's the deuce. West didn't start with five spades.

On the last heart, West pitches his diamond; East pitches the deuce of clubs. The BBO robots do give count when discarding, so East's eight-deuce suggests he started with four clubs. That means West is 3-3-3-4-3, and this is the current position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ 10 8 ♥ -- ♦ 10 ♣ J
WEST Robot ♠ x ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ ? ? ?		EAST Robot ♠ x x ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ ? ?
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ Q ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ 9 5 3

It can't hurt to exit with a club. I can't imagine how the opponents could mess this ending up, but I'll leave it to them to find a way. 

I exit with the three of clubs. West ducks this to his partner's king. East returns a club to his partner's ace and queen, and I score the spade queen at the end.

 Making three.

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

West can take one more trick by switching to a club. And he knows his partner has the king. So why didn't he find it? Perhaps he thought this was the layout:

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

If so, then a heart return holds me to eight tricks while cashing clubs lets me take nine.

But opposite a reliable partner, that layout isn't possible. This is a good example of why East must play the eight, not the four, to give count. And of why, on the actual deal, I must lead the five of hearts to dummy to take advantage if he doesn't.

Plus 150 should be a decent score. Those who lead a low diamond to the queen will tie my result if West ducks and will lose to it if he wins and cashes clubs.

And those who open one heart should play in two hearts after the auction

North	South
	1 ♥
1 NT	2 ♣
2 ♥	Pass

After a spade lead, they may draw two rounds of trump, take a diamond finesse, and run into a ruff to score 110. Even if they avoid the ruff, they score only 140. So plus 150 should tie or beat the other tables.

But the field produced a variety of bizarre results. The scores ranged from plus 430 to minus 200. Plus 150 is worth 57%.