Board 106

Board 106
Both sides vulnerable

♠ 10 ♥ 9 6 5 ♦ Q 7 6 ♣ K Q 7 6 5 2

RHO opens four spades in first seat. I pass, and LHO bids Blackwood. RHO bids five spades, showing two key cards and the trump queen, in other words, showing a hand I wouldn't have opened four spades with. LHO bids five notrump. What more does he expect his partner to have?

Should I double six clubs when RHO bids it to direct a lead against a possible six notrump? No, I don't think so. I doubt LHO is going to bid six notrump, and I see no reason to tip declarer off about the location of the club honors. RHO bids six clubs, as expected, and I pass. LHO bids six spades, which ends the auction.

The king of clubs lead seems pointless, since declarer probably has a singleton club. I think my goal should be to set up a trick in a red suit, and diamonds offers better prospects than hearts. To see why, imagine a dummy like the following

♠ x x ♥ A ? ? x ♦ A ? ? x ♣ A x x

If declarer is 8-2-2-1, he has eleven cashing tricks, and, given time, dummy's red-suit honors will probably provide a twelfth. To beat this, I need to establish a trick for our side without simultaneously establishing a twelfth trick for declarer. If I lead a diamond, I need partner's diamonds to be king-ten or better to achieve this. If I lead a heart, I need partner's hearts to be king-jack or better. Actually, that's not even good enough. I need them to be king-jack-eight or better, so declarer can't establish a heart trick with a ruffing finesse. In short, a diamond lead requires less from partner to be right. So I lead the six of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
			4 ♠
Pass	4 NT	Pass	5 ♠
Pass	5 NT	Pass	6 ♣
Pass	6 ♠	(All pass)

Declarer rises with dummy's ace, partner plays the nine, and declarer plays the four. Declarer should have the ten left, since partner should have played the ten if he had it. But Jack is sometimes careless about that sort of thing. In any event, I'm happy with my opening lead. I doubt the king of clubs would have worked out very well.

Declarer plays a low spade to the king, then a spade back to the jack. I discard the seven of clubs. Partner follows to both spades. So declarer has seven solid spades. Isn't that a prototypical one spade bid? That's what I was always taught. Six solid is a weak two-bid; seven solid is a one-bid.

Declarer plays a spade to his hand, as partner pitches the deuce of hearts. I discard the club deuce. Declarer plays another spade.  I know declarer has no kings, so he has only ten tricks. Is there any danger he can find twelve? Provided he has another diamond, I don't see how. But suppose partner has miscarded with king-jack-ten sixth. Suppose declarer has

♠ A K Q 9 5 3 2 ♥ x x x ♦ 4 ♣ 9 4 .

At some point, declarer will lead the four of clubs toward dummy. If I split, he can win and lead a club to his nine, establishing two club tricks for heart discards. In fact, he doesn't even need the nine. Eight-four is good enough, since partner's nine will drop. To beat this, I must play low when declarer leads the club four. Can it hurt to play low?  What if he has

♠ A K Q 9 5 3 2 ♥ Q x x ♦ 10 4 ♣ 4 ?

If I don't split when he leads the club four, he can insert the jack, pitch a diamond on the club ace, then drive the heart king. But why would he spurn a legitimate chance to play the hand that way? I'm being paranoid even worrying about that. Anyway, I don't have to make up my mind just yet. But I do need to keep four clubs. I pitch the five of hearts, dummy plays the diamond deuce, and partner plays the diamond eight. That should be a count card, so partner should have begun with king-jack-nine-eight-three.

Declarer plays the eight of clubs. There's no reason to duck that card. I play the queen, declarer wins with the ace, and partner plays the four. Declarer plays a club to his nine. I win and lead the diamond queen.  Partner overtakes with the king, and declarer follows (though with the three, not the ten he is supposed to have). Down one.

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

As it happens, a heart lead would have worked, also. A club lead would not, though not for the reason I rejected it.  A club lead is wrong because, surprisingly, clubs is dummy's source of tricks.  Declarer should have flashed me his hand.  I would have led a club for sure if I had known he had a doubleton.

One of these days Jack and I need to have a serious discussion about carding. Of the five cards East might play at trick one, the nine would be second from the bottom on my list. In my opinion, if you want to play high, you play the jack, the highest card you can afford. I could understand the ten, since some players like to reserve the jack for an alarm-clock signal. But the nine makes no sense. The nine (if intended as high) should deny the ten.

Personally, however, I think East should play the eight at trick one, showing count. Declarer's Blackwood response marks East with both red kings, so attitude is unnecessary. If West can count the hand, he will know how to defend. So East should tell him what he needs to know.

At the other table, the auction is the same, but West leads the king of clubs. I'm surprised. The club king strikes me as the kind of lazy lead a human might make but not the kind of mistake I would expect from Jack. I find it hard to believe that a random sampling of deals actually reveals the club king to be the winning choice.

17 imps is a hefty pickup.  We've managed to get the opponents' lead down to something manageable. We have 22 boards left, and all we need is a little more than an imp per board.

Me: +100
Jack: -1430

Score on Board 106: +17 IMPs
Total: -26 IMPs