Board 11
Neither vulnerable
Neither vulnerable
| ♠ A 8 6 ♥ A 10 9 5 ♦ A 10 6 3 ♣ 5 3 |
I open one notrump (12-14) in first seat, and everyone passes. West leads the deuce of spades.
| NORTH
♠ 9 5 4 3 ♥ 6 4 3 ♦ 9 8 4 ♣ A J 9 |
||
| SOUTH
♠ A 8 6 ♥ A 10 9 5 ♦ A 10 6 3 ♣ 5 3 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 NT | |||
| (All pass) |
My opponents lead attitude against notrump, so this lead could be from a five-card suit. But that seems unlikely, since any five-card suit would contain an honor sequence. I play low from dummy, and East plays the ten. It appears East has jack-ten doubleton and West has led from king-queen-seven-deuce. I might as well win this while the spades are blocked.
I don't care for my chances. I have four aces and very little time to develop tricks elsewhere. The diamond spots make diamonds more convenient than hearts to attack from my hand, so I lead the three of diamonds. West plays the jack--four--five. I note that I haven't seen the deuce. Perhaps West has it, or perhaps East has signaled count.
West plays the seven of spades to his partner's jack, and East shifts to the deuce of hearts. I'm happy to see a low heart spot rather than a high one. It means that, after cashing his spades, West will probably continue hearts rather than shift to a club. Should I play the ten of hearts or the nine?
If I play the nine, no matter what card West wins with, East will know I have the ten. If I play the ten, East will have no inference about the location of the nine. So the ten reveals less to East. What about West? West may already know I have some card higher than the nine from East's failure to lead the top of a sequence. So the ten might reveal less to West as well.
I play the ten, and West wins with the queen. West cashes the spade king, and East pitches the deuce of clubs. Another card I'm happy to see. It is almost certain now that West will continue hearts after cashing his last spade.
On the spade queen, East pitches the six of clubs. I haven't seen the club four. Jack typically discards from the bottom up, so West probably has the four. What should I discard?
I must save my long heart, since I expect West to shift back to hearts, establishing it for me. I probably won't have time to set up the long diamond, but I can always hope. It would be nice to hold the long diamond as well. Given East's defense, I'm fairly confident West isn't going to shift to a club. But if he does, holding a second club won't help much. He can always shift to an honor from honor-ten to prevent me from ducking. So I decide to discard a club.
My choice of spot cards makes no difference to West, since he knows I have both the three and the five. But I would like to conceal my club weakness from East if possible. Pitching high spot cards is generally how one does that, since it suggests that your remaining cards are higher still. So I pitch the club five.
As expected, West shifts to a heart: the seven. If the opponents' carding is honest, West began with queen-seven and East began with king-jack-eight-deuce. I play low from dummy and duck East's jack. East shifts to the queen of clubs. West plays the eight, and I win in dummy with the ace. If I'm right that West has the club four, he probably intends the eight as a signal, showing the king. I suspect West has the club ten as well, since East might not have discouraged a club shift so vehemently if he held queen-ten behind dummy's ace-jack-nine. That gives West an initial holding of king-ten-eight-four. He is unlikely to have a fifth club, given his initial spade lead. So West apparently began with a 4-2-3-4 pattern.
I lead a heart, East plays the eight, and I finesse the nine. West plays the club four. I cash the heart ace, West plays the club ten. I'm down to this ending with dummy to play:
| NORTH
♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ 9 8 ♣ J 9 |
||
| SOUTH
♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ A 10 6 ♣ -- |
I have two possible plays: (1) I can pitch a club from dummy, then play ace and a diamond, hoping West's singleton is an honor. Or (2) I can pitch a diamond from dummy, then play a low diamond, endplaying East if West's singleton is the seven or deuce. (I must pitch a diamond from dummy in case (2) to avoid losing all the tricks if West's singleton is an honor.) I can't think of any reason to go against the odds, so I adopt line (2). (King-jack, queen-jack, jack-seven, and jack-deuce are equally likely a priori. But West might have played the queen from queen-jack.) As I expected, it makes no difference. Down two.
| NORTH
♠ 9 5 4 3 ♥ 6 4 3 ♦ 9 8 4 ♣ A J 9 |
||
| WEST
♠ K Q 7 2 ♥ Q 7 ♦ Q J 2 ♣ K 10 8 4 |
EAST
♠ J 10 ♥ K J 8 2 ♦ K 7 5 ♣ Q 7 6 2 | |
| SOUTH
♠ A 8 6 ♥ A 10 9 5 ♦ A 10 6 3 ♣ 5 3 |
We get three matchpoints, beating the pair who defended one notrump making two the other direction and tieing the pair who also played one notrump our direction. Everyone else played one diamond our way, either making or going down one. I am a little surprised that so many Easts sold out to one diamond. After one diamond--pass--pass, I would balance with one notrump myself. Partner would probably raise to two. Will this make?
It probably will in practice, because South will probably lead a heart. But best defense will beat it after a diamond lead. Declarer wins and plays a spade. South wins and plays another diamond. Declarer wins, unblocks the spades, and plays a heart toward dummy's queen. If South ducks, declarer makes it easily, since South is squeezed on the run of the spades. To beat this, South must hop with his ace and immediately play a club. (He can't cash his diamonds first, because he needs to retain communication.) Declarer does best to play the club king. North takes his ace and plays a diamond to South. South now cashes the last diamond and plays another club, killing declarer's entry while the hearts are blocked. Any other defense allows declarer to untangle all his tricks, provided he takes the right view in clubs.
Score on Board 10: -100 (3 MP)
Total: 97 (73.5%)
Current rank: 1st
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