Board 16

Board 16
Opponents vulnerable

♠ J 8 ♥ 10 7 6 2 ♦ A K 2 ♣ A 10 3 2

RHO opens one club in third seat. I pass. LHO bids one spade, which RHO raises to two spades. LHO bids three spades, RHO carries on to four, and partner leads the ten of diamonds:

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

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

North certainly had his acceptance. I would have been nervous raising only to two on the previous round, although I suppose it isn't quite worth a three-spade bid.

Partner probably would have acted with six diamonds at this vulnerability, although it's not certain, particularly if he doesn't have the queen. But as a working hypothesis, I'm placing West with 5-5 in spades and diamonds. Since partner didn't lead a heart, declarer probably has a heart honor, which gives him two heart tricks and one club trick. To beat this, we have to hold him to six trump tricks. That means partner must have the spade ace. If so, perhaps we can hold declarer to four spade tricks in his hand plus two ruffs. Partner also needs the jack of clubs, else declarer will have two club tricks.

Declarer leads the queen of hearts from dummy, I play the seven. Declarer plays the nine, and partner wins with the king. So it appears declarer is 5-2-5-1. I'm rooting for partner to play ace and a spade. My club ace will disappear, but that doesn't matter. In fact, that may be a good thing. He might actually go down two if I lose my club ace.

Let's see how the play will go. After ace and a spade, declarer unblocks his ace of hearts, ruffs a diamond, pitches his club on the queen of hearts, then leads the ace of clubs.  I cover and he ruffs. But he's out of dummy entries, and he still has three diamonds in his hand.  He leads a diamond, I win my now singleton ace and play a high heart.  I guess declarer is still down only one.  He can pitch a diamond on my heart.  I now have to lead a club to dummy, letting him pitch his last diamond.

What if he has queen-jack diamonds though?  He's seen my king fall on the previous round.  He can lead a low diamond from queen-jack third in the end position, driving my ace, and his hand is high.  Now he makes his contract.  If partner doesn't have the queen of diamonds, he needs to lead a club to my ace and let me play a trump back.  OK.  I've changed my mind.  I'm now rooting for a club.

Unfortunately, partner plays neither spades nor clubs. He returns the eight of hearts--three-deuce--ace. Why did he do that? Perhaps he has a doubleton. Maybe declarer is 5-3-4-1, and partner is planning on winning the spade ace and crossing to my club ace for a heart ruff. No. Declarer plays the three of diamonds--four--spade six. I drop the ace, the card I'm known to hold. Declarer pitches the five of clubs on dummy's jack of hearts. So he had the doubleton, not partner.

Declarer now leads the queen of clubs from dummy. Unless declarer is being exceptionally clever, his five of clubs was a singleton. I see no reason to make things easy for him by covering. I play the deuce, declarer ruffs with the four, and partner follows with the four of clubs. Declarer has taken only two side tricks. He needs eight trump tricks to make this. He can ruff four diamonds in dummy and three clubs in his hand. We then need to take the last three tricks.

Declarer starts his cross-ruff. Diamond to dummy, club to his hand. He ruffs the fourth round of diamonds with the king of spades, and I pitch the ten of clubs. He ruffs the third round of clubs to his hand. Declarer is now down to two trumps and one diamond, and we need the rest. Declarer leads the jack of diamonds to partner's queen. I can't afford to leave partner on play at trick twelve. So I ruff and play the ten of hearts. To beat this, partner needs ace-nine of spades or declarer needs to misguess spades and ruff high (which he really can't do). No such luck. Declarer ruffs with the nine, and partner overruffs with the ace. Making four:

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

It's hard to see why partner played a heart back after winning the king. Perhaps he was playing me for a doubleton? But why would declarer attack a 4-4 heart fit before touching trumps? Should I have given false count in hearts to prevent him from doing this? If so, that simply requires more foresight than I'm capable of. It's true that I knew declarer had long diamonds and partner didn't. Perhaps that made it easier for me to see what was going on. Maybe I could drop the diamond ace at trick one, as if I were unblocking, to alert partner to that fact that I'm relatively short in diamonds. That seems pretty obscure, and it's not entire clear I can even afford to do that if declarer has the queen-jack. I don't think I can assume too much responsibility for this result.

Come to think of it, why doesn't declarer have the queen-jack of diamonds? That's an awfully thin invitation. It certainly doesn't satisfy Culbertson's "perfect minimum" rule (see Board 12). I must admit I would have passed two spades.

In the replay, the auction was the same. The play was the same, too, up to the point where declarer led the king of clubs from dummy. The player in my seat covered. Declarer got rid of all his diamonds.  But he wound up on play in his hand at trick twelve and had to lead away from his queen-nine of spades.  Making four for a push.

So not covering the king of clubs might have been crucial.   I was beating the contract at my table if partner had the nine of spades.  Of course, declarer could take the ruffing finesse if that were the case.

Me: -620
Jack: -620

Score on board 15: 0 IMPs
Total: +36 IMPs