Board 8
Neither vulnerable
Neither vulnerable
| ♠ 10 7 4 ♥ K Q 5 3 ♦ Q ♣ Q 9 6 5 3 |
Partner opens one diamond in second seat. Pass to me. I respond one heart, and partner rebids one spade. I bid one notrump, which ends the auction. West leads the deuce of clubs.
| NORTH
♠ Q J 9 6 ♥ 7 6 ♦ A K 9 8 6 ♣ K 7 |
||
| SOUTH
♠ 10 7 4 ♥ K Q 5 3 ♦ Q ♣ Q 9 6 5 3 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | 1 ♦ | Pass | 1 ♥ |
| Pass | 1 ♠ | Pass | 1 NT |
| (All pass) |
If East has the ace, I might do well to duck this in dummy. But if West has it, rising with king will create more problems for the defense. To take two club tricks, the next club play will have to come from East. He may not have enough entries to play both clubs and hearts (assuming playing hearts is a good idea). In addition, if he has jack doubleton and fails to unblock under the king, taking two club tricks becomes even more problematic.
I rise with the king, and East plays the four. If I play the three, West will know East played his lowest club. So I follow with the five.
My basic plan is to take one club, three diamonds, two spades, and a heart. It could be difficult to do this, since the opponents can hold up in spades to deprive me of a second spade trick. But, if they do, perhaps I can manage an extra trick in hearts or clubs.
There are two ways I can start. I can unblock diamonds, then play a spade; or I can use this opportunity to play a heart toward my hand. If East has the heart ace, this might be a good idea, because I may need two heart tricks. But if West has the heart ace, it will be a very bad idea.
I don't know at this point whether I need two heart tricks or not. So which line is better? Actually, this decision is not hard if you think about the hand from your opponents' point of view, as you always should. East knows his partner has only four clubs and you have five (unless West has led from ace third), so, if you play a diamond to the queen and a spade, what is East going to do when he wins the trick? Looking at that dummy, he will surely play a heart. So even if it's right for you to play a heart now, you probably don't need to. East will do it for you. I play a diamond to the queen. East plays the seven; West, the four.
I lead the spade seven (getting the card out of the way just in case I need to finesse against the eight later on). West plays the three, I play the queen from dummy, and East wins with the ace.
As expected, East shifts to the deuce of hearts. This confirms that clubs are four-two. If West had led the deuce of clubs from ace third, East, with three clubs himself, would not know this and would probably continue the suit. His spurning a club return suggests that he has a doubleton and knows I have five. And, since West didn't lead the jack, East's remaining club is probably the jack or ten.
If I play the heart king and West has the ace, he will suspect I have the queen. I don't know if he will have enough confidence in this inference to duck, but I'm not taking any chances. I want to know who has the heart ace. It is much harder to duck the queen than the king, so that's the card I choose. West wins with the ace and continues with the heart ten. East follows with the four.
Unless West is being tricky, East has the heart jack. So, if I win this, East will have an entry to put a club through. When the defense wins the spade king, they will be able to cash two more hearts and two clubs, bringing their total to seven tricks. It's possible they can't cash all these tricks if East failed to unblock the jack of clubs. But, even then, I have no clear route to making this contract if I win this trick. All the defense has to do is duck the next spade to give me serious problems.
What happens if I duck the heart ten? Suppose, first, that West plays ace and a spade to strand me in dummy. I can then cash one high diamond and the long spade, coming down to:
| NORTH
♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ K 9 8 ♣ 7 |
||
| SOUTH
♠ -- ♥ K ♦ -- ♣ Q 9 6 |
West might choose to lead a low spade instead of ace and another to deprive me of a long spade trick. But that doesn't seem to help. Without going through all the possibilities, that play seems to make life easier for me by giving me an extra way to toss him back in the lead. In short, ducking the heart looks as if it gives me lots of chances, some, but not all of which, require East to have a singleton jack of clubs. Winning the heart requires clubs to be blocked. And I'm not necessarily home even then. So I duck.
West takes yet another approach to the defense. He cashes the club ace, stripping dummy of its exit. East follows with the jack.
West shifts to the five of diamonds. I win with dummy's ace. East plays the deuce as I discard a heart. I cash the king of diamonds, pitching a club as West discards the club eight. I need to find three tricks in this position:
| NORTH
♠ J 9 6 ♥ -- ♦ 9 8 ♣ -- |
||
| SOUTH
♠ 10 4 ♥ K ♦ -- ♣ Q 9 |
I lead the nine of spades from dummy. If East has the spade king, I'm down. If West has it, he must duck, else I have an entry to my hand. I can then continue with the jack of spades, smothering my ten. If West has the king or king-eight of spades remaining (having foolishly failed to unblock the eight on the previous trick), he must give me the last two tricks in my hand.
As the cards lie, West can't even stop the overtrick now. He takes the spade king and plays a heart, My hand is high. Making two:
| NORTH
♠ Q J 9 6 ♥ 7 6 ♦ A K 9 8 6 ♣ K 7 |
||
| WEST
♠ K 8 3 ♥ A 10 9 8 ♦ 5 4 ♣ A 10 8 2 |
EAST
♠ A 5 2 ♥ J 4 2 ♦ J 10 7 3 2 ♣ J 4 | |
| SOUTH
♠ 10 7 4 ♥ K Q 5 3 ♦ Q ♣ Q 9 6 5 3 |
What if West, after cashing the club ace, had exited with king and a spade instead of a diamond? I would cash the long spade, and East would presumably pitch the jack of hearts. I would then cash a diamond, reaching this position, needing two more tricks.
| NORTH
♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ K 9 8 ♣ -- |
||
| SOUTH
♠ -- ♥ K ♦ -- ♣ Q 9 |
The opponents have three diamonds left, so a low diamond from dummy, pitching a club, guarantees my two tricks. If East has all three diamonds, he is endplayed. If not, whoever wins the diamond must put me in one hand or the other.
They couldn't beat me once East won the spade ace. Had he ducked the first round of spades, I don't see any way I can make it.
This result is worth a full 12 matchpoints, and that would have been true even without the overtrick. One North-South pair defended one notrump making. The others declared either one notrump or two spades, down one in every case.
Score on Board 8: +120 (12 MP)
Total: 71 MP (74.0%)
Current Rank: 1st
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