Board 84

Board 84
Both sides vulnerable

♠ 7 ♥ 10 6 5 3 ♦ J 9 8 7 6 ♣ 6 5 4

The auction begins one spade--one notrump--two spades to me. I pass, LHO bids three spades, and RHO continues on to four. Partner leads the three of diamonds.

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

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

Declarer plays the ten from dummy. Obviously declarer has either a singleton queen or queen-deuce. I doubt if an extra dummy entry will be of much use, so there's no point in playing the jack. Is there a reason not to play it? Absolutely. Declarer knows my high-card point range from partner's one notrump overcall.  He may know, for example, that I have at most two high-card points. If so, then once he sees my jack of diamonds, he will know I can't have a queen. It must be better to keep the location of my meager assets a secret. I encourage with the nine, and declarer wins in his hand with the diamond queen.

Declarer cashes the king of spades, on which partner plays the ten, then the ace of spade, on which partner plays the jack. I discard the eight of diamonds (count), so partner will know declarer's diamond queen was a singleton.

Bad hands frequently present the most difficult problems. Just because you have a bad hand doesn't mean you have nothing to do. Sometimes an apparently worthless holding keeps partner from being squeezed.  Sometimes you must cooperate in a deception partner is perpetrating. And it can be hard to solve these problems, because the worse your hand, the harder it is to work out what's going on.

On this deal, our problem will be to find a discard when declarer plays a third round of spades to partner's queen. The lazy play would be to pitch another diamond, since we know it's safe and a pitch in either hearts or clubs could be helpful to declarer.  But before we do that, let's figure out what we can about the layout.

As it happens, we can deduce quite a bit. Partner apparently began with the queen-jack of spades, so he has at least twelve points in the round suits. If we assume he would have led a suit headed by king-queen or ace-king, there are only two ways he can have twelve points: (1) ace-queen of each suit, or (2) ace-queen-jack of one suit and ace-jack of the other. 

If partner has ace-queen of both round suits, how should he defend when he gets tossed in with the third round of spades? It depends upon declarer's pattern. If declarer is 5-2-1-5, for example, (a pattern we know is impossible, but partner might not) partner must cash the heart ace then wait for his ace and queen of clubs.  But if declarer is 5-5-1-2, that defense would be fatal. In that case, he must cash the club ace.  If declarer is 4-3 or 3-4 in the pointed suits, partner can either cash the ace of the three-card suit or can simply exit a diamond without cashing any aces.

Since partner must know declarer's pattern to know how to defend, I need to discard a count card in one of the side suits.  The lazy diamond discard will leave partner in the dark. As a general rule, one tends to avoid pitching from four-card suits. So partner will probably expect me to pitch a low card from my three-card suit. Accordingly, if declarer plays a third round of spades, my intention is to pitch the four of clubs.

But declarer doesn't play a spade. He plays the club king, and partner takes the ace. Amazingly, I can now place all the high cards.  Partner must have the ace-jack of clubs and the ace-queen-jack of hearts. Where does that leave us? Partner will presumably cash his spade queen and exit with a diamond. If declarer has four hearts, partner will eventually score two heart tricks. Suppose, however, that declarer has

♠ A K x x x ♥ K x x ♦ Q ♣ K Q 10 x.

Declarer will pitch two hearts on the ace and king of diamonds and must then decide whether to finesse me for the jack of clubs or whether to drop partner's now singleton jack. My play at trick one is looking pretty good. If I had played the jack of diamonds, declarer would know that partner has the club jack and would surely drop it.  As it is, he will probably finesse.

Partner cashes the spade queen. I've changed my mind about my discard. I now know I can't afford a club, since I need declarer to think I began with jack third. I pitch the six of diamonds. (All that work just to wind up making the same discard any fool would have made!)

Partner cashes the club queen. Really? What's he doing with that card? He exits with a diamond and we score the heart ace in the end for down one.

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

I don't understand declarer's line of play. He just gave up. How is playing the club king ever doing to work?  Aren't you better off exiting with a spade and hoping that your opponent overcalled one notrump with a 14-count? Or that he has some kind of Deschapelles flight of fancy?

It's too bad the deal isn't as I envisioned it. If I actually needed to withhold the jack of diamonds and avoid a club discard to beat this, it would be a nice hand.

At the other table, my opponents are playing 16-18 notrump overcalls, so West doubles one spade. North bids three spades, preemptive, and South bids four spades. Without such an accurate picture of West's hand, declarer takes a less defeatist line. He plays three rounds of spades and, when he reaches dummy, finesses against the queen of clubs. Down one for a push.

Me: +100
Jack: +100

Score on Board 84: 0 IMPs
Total: -104 IMPs