The video takes you through the auction and the opening lead. If you want to see the rest of the hand, you can purchase tickets here.
| ♠ A 5 4 3 ♥ Q 10 2 ♦ Q 8 ♣ 9 7 6 4 |
Partner passes, and RHO opens with one heart. I pass, LHO bids one notrump (forcing), and RHO bids two hearts. I pass again, and LHO raises to four hearts. Everyone passes.
If I had the same hand with three small hearts, I might lead the queen of diamonds, hoping either to build up diamond tricks or to maneuver a ruff. But, since I have a trump trick that I didn't have to have, there is less reason to be aggressive. I lead a third-and-lowest six of clubs.
| NORTH
♠ J 8 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ 10 9 6 3 2 ♣ A K 3 |
||
| WEST
♠ A 5 4 3 ♥ Q 10 2 ♦ Q 8 ♣ 9 7 6 4 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | 1 ♥ | ||
| Pass | 1 NT1 | Pass | 2 ♥ |
| Pass | 4 ♥ | (All pass) | |
| 1Forcing | |||
Declarer plays the club king from dummy; partner plays the eight; declarer, the deuce. Declarer cashes dummy's club ace. Partner plays the five, and declarer pitches the seven of diamonds. Since partner knows my club count, there is no reason for me to reveal it to declarer. So I decide to conceal the four. I choose the nine rather the seven, since it is the card I'm known to hold. (Partner obviously intended the eight as high, so he cannot hold the nine.) It may appear to the casual kibitzer that I'm giving suit preference for spades. Rest assured I am not.
Declarer's likeliest shape is 3-6-3-1. If he has a third-round spade loser, he can ruff it in dummy. If that is his plan, he will lead a spade from dummy at trick three. If he doesn't lead a spade, it's likely he has either the spade queen (with or without the king) or a doubleton spade. In the latter case, he is probably 2-7-3-1. 2-6-4-1 is unlikely, given the diamond pitch.
He doesn't lead a spade. He leads the three of clubs. Partner plays the ten, and declarer ruffs with the heart three.
What's this play all about? It appears declarer is stripping the hand for an endplay. Perhaps he intends to play ace and a heart to his jack, endplaying me if I win with queen doubleton. Although, given my conclusions about his spade holding, I can't construct a precise hand where that makes any sense.
Perhaps there is no technical basis for this play. Perhaps it is only a discovery play. Maybe declarer is trying to gather information about the lie of the club suit to help resolve a guess in another suit. If so, what card should I play? Either card will reveal something. The four will reveal my count; the seven will reveal I don't have an honor (since he knows I have only one card left higher than the six). How will this information help him? Count will help him if he is trying to guess the trump suit. Knowing about my high cards will help him if he is trying to place honors. Since there is nothing he can do about his trump loser, I would rather he have an accurate count than know I don't have a club honor. I play the club four.
Declarer plays the four of hearts. Declarer has no reason I can see to insert the eight, and splitting would cost a trick of partner has a stiff king. So I play the deuce--ace--nine. Declarer leads the eight of spades--seven--ten.
This looks like king-ten third of spades. So it appears declarer does need to ruff a spade. He just postponed the spade play, although I'm not sure why. It seems awfully risky--as well as pointless--to make this discovery play in clubs. What if I had something like
♠ Q x x x x ♥ Q x ♦ x x x ♣ 9 7 6 ?
|
I could win the spade queen, return a spade to partner's ace, and get a trump promotion on the fourth round of clubs. Maybe I was wrong to play the club four. The seven, making it appear that I was now out of clubs, might have given declarer more to worry about.
I take my ace and return the three of spades--jack--queen--king. Declarer cashes the king of hearts. In the fullness of time, I take my heart queen. Making five.
| NORTH
♠ J 8 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ 10 9 6 3 2 ♣ A K 3 |
||
| WEST
♠ A 5 4 3 ♥ Q 10 2 ♦ Q 8 ♣ 9 7 6 4 |
EAST
♠ Q 7 6 2 ♥ 9 ♦ J 5 4 ♣ Q J 10 8 5 | |
| SOUTH
♠ K 10 9 ♥ K J 7 6 4 3 ♦ A K 7 ♣ 2 |
Would I have done better to conceal the club count, playing the seven instead of the four on the third round? One of the advantages of playing against Jack is you can actually answer such questions. I replayed the hand to find out. Declarer was indeed afraid of an uppercut if I did that. Instead of playing a heart to the ace right away, he cashed the heart king, then played a heart to ace. He can no longer make five. Even if he guesses spades, I can take my ace, cash the heart queen, then exit in a minor to score partner's queen of spades.
Should I have seen this? I certainly should have seen that concealing the club count will make declarer worry about an uppercut. Annoyingly, that didn't occur to me until a few tricks later. It may be hard to see precisely how this worry will play out, but I don't need to. Instilling this worry must represent some advantage to the defense, and that fact is sufficient reason to play the seven. So I did made a mistake.
Declarer misplayed it, of course. It's unlikely he would learn anything useful from ruffing the club. He should have played a spade to the ten at trick two (taking the percentage guess in spades, since my failure to lead the suit increases the likelihood that I have the ace). But that's little consolation. When declarer misplays a hand, I'm supposed to make him pay.
Score on Board 53: -450 (3 MP)
Total: 418 MP (65.7%)
Current rank: 1st
Declarer's very early play seems consistent with a plan to set up diamonds for spade discards, hoping for both red suits to split and to use the H8 as a late entry to dummy. That could produce twelve tricks via six hearts, four diamonds and two clubs.
ReplyDeleteWhy declarer did not follow through by cashing two high diamonds seems odd to me, but I do understand declarer's not playing a spade early from dummy, thus risking losing two spades should the SQ be offside.
Interesting opening lead problem. Without a club, the line of setting up the diamonds is much to be preferred, since you now have one more late entry to dummy. But that begs the question of what to else west can lead. Clearly, after a spade lead declarer will have no problem making five, and a heart lead will let declarer make six.
ReplyDeleteSo what about diamonds? If Phillip did lead the diamond queen, declarer might assume it was a singleton (or four to the queen jack, giving east a singleton). A low diamond is as bad as a spade, if declarer puts up the ten, which costs nothing, he has five diamond tricks. Now west must ruff in with his trump trick and cash the spade ace to hold declarer to five.
So it looks like Phillip did consider the only two safe leads. For what it is worth, I would have played the seven of clubs on the third round. Probably not for a very "good" reason. I started concealing count, and it is usually wrong to change horses in midstream without reason.