Event 3 - Match 1 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ K 7 6 ♥ Q 9 8 3 ♦ K 10 4 ♣ Q 5 4

RHO opens one notrump (15-17) in second seat. LHO bids two hearts, a transfer to spades. RHO bids two spades, which ends the auction.

With nothing much to go on, I lead the eight of hearts, choosing my longest suit.

	NORTH Sophie ♠ 10 9 4 3 2 ♥ K 10 5 ♦ 8 6 ♣ 10 9 6
WEST Phillip ♠ K 7 6 ♥ Q 9 8 3 ♦ K 10 4 ♣ Q 5 4

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Sophie	Jack	Jacinta
		Pass	1 NT
Pass	2 ♥1	Pass	2 ♠
(All pass)
1Jacoby-transfer

Partner has from 10 to 12 high-card points. Make that 10 to 11, since he's a passed hand. It's inconceivable he didn't balance with a singleton spade. So declarer has at most three spades.

Dummy plays the heart ten, partner plays the jack, and declarer follows with the seven. Partner switches to the ace of clubs. With ace-jack doubleton of hearts, partner would cash the ace and try for a heart ruff. With ace-jack fourth, partner might worry that declarer can ruff a heart and might switch to a trump. (He can't be sure I have four hearts, but it's likely, since queen-nine-eight third is a rather unattractive lead.) I am going to assume, therefore, that hearts are three-three, although I can hardly be certain about that just yet. Partner might have reasons I don't know about to prefer a club switch to a trump switch.

Why is partner leading the club ace rather than a low one? Perhaps he has ace doubleton and is looking for a ruff. Or perhaps he has the jack and sees no gain in leading low. Perhaps he would prefer to retain the option of switching plans if, say, declarer dropped an honor under the ace. Leading the ace from length without the jack would be dangerous, since it could cost a trick if I had queen doubleton or queen-jack doubleton. (Not to mention taking declarer off a potential guess, although that's something Jack wouldn't worry about.)

Declarer plays the eight. Do I want partner to continue clubs or to switch to diamond? Say partner plays a club and declarer hops with the king and plays another one to my queen. Partner still has the ace of hearts as an entry to put a diamond through. And I have a spade entry to cash it. So we won't lose my king of diamonds. If partner switches to a diamond, however, and if declarer has ace-queen-jack, there may be no way for us to stop my club trick from disappearing. Accordingly, I encourage with the five.

Partner continues with the seven of clubs, and declarer wins with the king. If the seven is an honest card, partner should have either (1) ace-seven doubleton, (2) ace-jack-seven,  or (3) ace-jack-seven fifth (where the seven is present count). He might also have (4) ace-seven third. As I explained earlier, I'm inclined to think won't have length without the jack. But I will include that holding anyway for the time being. I can always discard that possibility later if it becomes too hard to cater to it. That gives declarer:

(1) ♣ K J 8 3 2

(2) ♣ K 8 3 2

(3) ♣ K 8 (4) ♣ K J 8 x

(2) is impossible. Declarer cannot afford to falsecard the eight with that holding. So I'm left with (1), (3), and (4).

What else do I know? Since partner has shown up with nine high-card points and is a passed hand, he can't have both spade honors. Declarer also knows partner is limited to two additional high-card points. so, from his point of view, I am marked with both the diamond king and spade king.

I follow with the club four. Declarer cashes the spade ace. He needn't bother finessing with ace-queen. But he would probably make a more concerted effort to pick up spades if he had ace-jack. So I am going to assume he has ace-queen, ace-queen-small, or ace-queen-jack.

I play the seven--deuce--five. Declarer now leads the diamond jack. Whoa! What is going on? What's the hurry to play diamonds? For that matter, why play diamonds at all? All our round-suit tricks are ready to cash, so there is nothing to gain by setting up diamond tricks.

I play the king, and partner follows with the deuce, showing an odd number. I should be able to construct declarer's hand now. Declarer must have either

(1) ♠ A Q ♥ x x x ♦ A Q J ♣ K J 8 x x

(3) ♠ A Q ? ♥ x x x ♦ A Q J x x ♣ K 8 (4) ♠ A Q ? ♥ x x x ♦ A Q J ♣ K J 8 x

(1) and (4) are not possible. Declarer has nothing to gain by conceding a diamond with those hands. He would play clubs, intending to pitch a diamond on the club jack and hoping we must ruff with a natural trump trick. Playing on diamonds makes perfect sense with (3), however. Declarer must knock out the diamond before trumps are drawn, else we will be able to cash a club trick. Driving the diamond king allows him to pitch dummy's club if diamonds are three-three, if someone ruffs the third diamond with a natural trump trick, or if we make a mistake on defense. In fact, I suspect I can go even further and assume that the '?' is the jack. If it is the eight, declarer probably would not have cashed the spade ace. Cashing the ace risks allowing us to draw his trumps (heart to the ace and a spade to my putative king-jack) and cash the club.

I play the nine of hearts (the lowest card I can afford, to show an odd number remaining. The queen should show a doubleton.) Declarer plays king from dummy. Partner wins with the ace and returns the deuce to my queen. If my construction is correct, it doesn't matter what I do. So I must assume I'm wrong. It's hard to believe I'm wrong about declarer's having a doubleton club. Abandoning trumps to establish diamonds is simply pointless otherwise. But I might be wrong about the spade jack. If partner has it and I continue a club, declarer will ruff and play the spade queen, smothering the jack. If I play a diamond, allowing declarer to pitch his club loser, he must play trumps out of his hand and might misguess.

Of course, a human expert could not possibly misguess. If I had king doubleton, I could take two trump tricks by force by tapping him. So, against a human, I would play a club anyway. Even though I'm fairly sure it's not cashing, there's nothing else worth trying. Jack, however, cannot draw inferences from my defense. So he's perfectly capable of "misguessing" spades. I play the ten of diamonds--eight--seven--ace. Declarer cashes the queen of diamonds, pitching dummy's club, then plays the eight of spades from his hand, which I let ride to partner's jack. Down two.

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

My care in going for the extra trick was worthwhile, since our teammates played the same contract, down one. We pick up two imps.

Table 1: +100
Table 2: -50

Result on Board 5: +2 imps
Total: +14 imps