Jaz Hands - Board 15

Board 15
Both sides vulnerable

This week, we take a look at the penultimate board in the Jazlene's match.

♠ 8 5  ♥ J 9 8  ♦ A Q 10 9  ♣ 10 8 6 2

You pass. LHO opens with two hearts, weak, partner passes, and RHO bids two notrump, showing a game-forcing hand with five or more spades. LHO bids three hearts, showing precisely a doubleton spade, and RHO bids four spades. Everyone passes.

RHO was apparently interested in finding the right strain for game. It's very likely she holds a singleton heart, else she might have bid four hearts and not bothered to look for a spade fit. That means declarer might have two fast pitches, so it may be necessary to cash our minor-suit tricks quickly. If so, perhaps we should lead the diamond ace. If partner has the king, maybe we can cash three diamonds and find a fourth trick somewhere. Or maybe declarer has a stiff heart honor and dummy has the diamond king, in which case ace and a diamond may kill the entry before declarer get's a chance to unblock hearts. 

On second thought, I don't think the diamond ace makes much sense. If you lead a diamond, it's probably better to lead low. If the idea is to kill dummy's entry, low will work just as well as the ace. If partner has the king, low will work better if it's doubleton. The usual reason for leading the ace rather than low in a cash-out situation--that you retain the option of shifting--doesn't really apply here. If a diamond lead is wrong, it probably doesn't matter whether you lead the ace or a low one. You've blown the defense either way.

The alternative is to lead a club, hoping partner has the club ace and can lead a diamond through declarer's king. Perhaps he has the diamond jack and we can take three diamond tricks. Or perhaps he has a doubleton and can score a ruff. 

Which is better? A club lead might enable us to take four tricks off the top if partner has as little as the club ace. A diamond lead, even if you do catch partner with the king, yields at most three diamond tricks, so you will still need to find partner with another trick somewhere. A club lead, then, should work more often than a diamond lead.

Jazlene opts for a club. She leads the six, third best from even.

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

West	North	East	South
Jazlene	Paulus	Gideon	Desy
Pass	2 ♥	Pass	2 NT
Pass	3 ♥	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)

Declarer plays low from dummy, partner plays the jack, and declarer wins with the ace. She would have played the queen with ace-small, so she must have either a singleton ace or ace-king. If the latter, winning with the ace was a mistake. Had she won with the king, it would be possible from our perspective that partner held the ace. As it is, we know we have no club tricks coming.

Declarer cashes the ace of hearts. Presumably she is unblocking a stiff ace so she can pitch diamonds on the king and queen. Next she'll play ace of spades and a spade to the queen, then take her pitches. At least, if partner does have the diamond king, only two diamonds were cashing, so a diamond lead would not have helped.

We play the nine; partner plays the four. We play upside-down count and attitude, so partner's four shows an even number. But he knows I can deduce the heart count. No need to help out declarer--especially when she may need to decide how many hearts are cashing.

Declarer doesn't play trumps as expected. She cashes the ace of clubs. There is no reason to do this unless she started with ace-king tight. She is unblocking both suits so she can take pitches from either one.

How many pitches can she take? Let's say this is the layout:

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

After ace and queen of spades, she'll pitch a diamond on the heart king and another on the club queen. We'll now be down to this position:

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

She has two ways to try for six: (A) Cash a heart, pitching another diamond. This requires three-three hearts or the hand with four hearts to hold the last trump. Or (B) lead up to the diamond king. Our goal is to talk her into (B). Partner got us off to a good start with his false count in hearts. If we follow with the jack when declarer cashes the king, it may look as if hearts are four-two, in which case she will lead a diamond to the king.

What should we play on this trick? It's probably best declarer knows we started with four clubs. Since we're representing heart shortness, we want to represent club length. So we follow with the deuce of clubs. Partner plays the three.

Declarer plays the four of spades. Interesting. She must be missing either the ace or king of spades, else she would have played ace and a spade to the queen to draw as many trumps as possible before taking pitches.

Declarer plays the nine from dummy, and partner wins the king. Declarer has ace-jack-ten of spades, so the queen of spades is a dummy entry. Again declarer was careless with her carding. Had she played the queen from dummy, I couldn't be sure that the nine was an entry.

Partner shifts to the deuce of diamonds. Declarer plays the jack and we win with the queen.

If declarer had played the queen of spades, it would be right to return a spade. If partner has a spade higher than the nine, we can keep declarer off dummy and take two more diamond tricks to beat this. Since the nine is an entry, declarer would take the rest.

But we know the spade queen is an entry. So we might as well cash the the diamond ace. No need to lose the overtrick. 

We cash the it, and declarer claims. Making four.

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

A low diamond lead wouldn't have mattered. Declarer would win, cash winners, and exit a diamond. We have no realistic chance to beat this now. But we can win and tap dummy with a third diamond to score partner's spade king and hold it to four.

We've seen a number of good plays and a number of bad plays in the course of reviewing this match. But if I were playing in this match and made every mistake we've encountered so far, playing the spade nine instead of the queen is the error I would be most upset about. It may have cost only an overtrick, but it betrays that you weren't even trying to see the deal from the opponents' perspective.

Mistakes are unavoidable. We miscalculate. We misjudge. We have blind spots. But looking at the deal through your opponents' eyes is something that should always be top of mind. One can never become a top player until that becomes a habit.

And one of the primary goals of Gargoyle Chronicles is to help you get into that habit. You may have noticed we spend a lot of time in these posts asking, "Why is my opponent doing this? What can I deduce about the layout from his actions?" Even when it would seem not to matter. That's because these are the questions you should be asking yourself routinely. And the good news is you can ask these questions on any deal. So every deal you play offers a chance to practice. 

That's why, when covering a match, we never skip over a deal. I'm a firm believer that every deal offers an opportunity to learn something. If you can't find it, you just haven't looked hard enough. (By the way, I first heard this sentiment expressed by Michael Rosenberg. I don't want him saying I didn't give him credit.)

At the other table, Jaz's teammates reached four hearts from the South side after a multi-two diamond opening by North. West led the spade eight, and East made the mistake of covering the queen. Declarer now took all thirteen tricks. If East withholds his king, declarer has no way to take more than eleven tricks.

Say declarer repeats the finesse, cashes the heart ace, and leads the ace of spades. West ruffs, declarer overruffs and cashes the trump king, leaving East with a high trump. He then plays a club to his hand and cashes a spade, pitching a diamond from dummy. East ruffs and plays a diamond to his partner's ace, scoring two tricks for the defense.

East's error, along with South's error at our table, resulted in a three-imp pickup for Jazlene. So her team is up six imps going into the last board.

Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of the match. Spoiler alert: we face a slam decision, so the match is still up for grabs.