Event 3 - Match 6 - Board 2

Board 2
Our side vulnerable

♠ A 7 ♥ 9 6 2 ♦ A 9 8 7 5 ♣ K J 6

RHO passes. I open one notrump (12-14) and buy it. LHO leads the king of hearts.

	NORTH Jack ♠ 10 3 2 ♥ A 8 3 ♦ 10 3 ♣ A 9 7 5 2
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ A 7 ♥ 9 6 2 ♦ A 9 8 7 5 ♣ K J 6

West	North	East	South
Thomas	Jack	Adrian	Phillip
		Pass	1 NT
(All pass)

As long as I can take four club tricks, I'll make this. I'd just as soon retain the ace of hearts as a dummy entry in case clubs don't break. Can I afford to duck, hoping West can't read his partner for the jack? I certainly don't want to duck if I could go down with clubs breaking all along. The most damaging shift is a spade. If West finds this shift and spades are five-three, they can take four spade tricks, one heart, and one club. Surely RHO would have bid at some point with six spades. So yes, ducking appears to be safe.

I play the three from dummy; East plays the seven. The opponents play upside-down attitude. So if East has the jack as I am hoping he does, he has specifically jack-seven. The usual rule for falsecarding as declarer is "Signal as the opponents do." Since I want West to shift, I should "discourage" by playing high. It doesn't hurt to follow this rule, but it's not always necessary either. A more accurate, though less pithy, rule is this: "If you want East's card to look high, conceal a spot card lower than the one he plays. If you want it to look low, conceal a spot card higher than the one he plays." I want East's seven to look high (discouraging), so I must conceal either the six or the deuce. But unless I play both cards at the same time, anything I do conceals one of those cards. No matter which card I play, it is possible for East's card to be high from a doubleton.

Since there is no technical advantage to choosing one card over another, I should, in theory, randomize. But as a practical matter, I think the best play is the deuce. Most players know the simplistic "signal as the opponents do" rule. So West will not expect me to play the deuce from three small. He may well reason as follows:

"If partner has the six of hearts, then the seven is high, so he wants me to shift. If declarer has the six, then declarer wants me to continue. Otherwise, he would have played the six, following standard falsecarding procedure. Either way, it must be right for me to shift."

Note this ploy works only because I have two cards lower than the seven. If I have nine-eight-deuce, I must play the eight or nine if I want West to shift. A sneaky, double-crossing deuce would not work, since it would reveal that the seven was East's lowest card. (And yes, I understand that these psychological games are pointless playing against Jack. I'm just practicing.)

I play the deuce, and West shifts to the king of diamonds. East plays the four. West's failure to continue hearts has enabled me to handle some club breaks I couldn't handle before. But I still can't handle all four-one breaks. East's diamond four is a lucky card. Perhaps I should exploit my good fortune and duck again. If I do and if West continues diamonds, I'm home. I don't need the club suit any more. And why shouldn't West continue? If diamonds looked like the right suit to play at trick two, it must look even better now.

All my diamond spots are higher than East's four. So, again, there is no technical reason to choose any particular card. I play the seven, since that seems to me like the card least apt to arouse suspicion.

West continues with the diamond queen, and East plays the six. East seems to have encouraged simply because he had the diamond jack. Jack frequently makes this mistake in signaling. He looks only at the suit led rather than at the hand as a whole. He knows he wants his partner to shift back to hearts, so he should have discouraged.

I now have seven tricks. I take the ace and play the nine of diamonds. West follows with the deuce. East will switch back to hearts after winning the diamond jack, so dummy's long clubs are worthless to me even if the club queen drops doubleton. Dummy's major-suit cards may come in handy, however. The third spade may be a squeeze threat, and I need a small heart in dummy so I can duck to correct the count. I pitch the deuce of clubs. East wins with the diamond jack and shifts to the ten of hearts.

The ten? Did West really decide to shift at trick two looking at king-queen-jack of hearts?

I play the six, West plays the four, and I duck in dummy. East now shifts to the king of spades. He must be out of hearts, and West forgot to overtake. I could duck this. If East has king-queen-jack of spades and the club queen, he will then be caught in a show-up squeeze for an overtrick. But, since the opponents failed to take the ace of hearts off the table, I can take the rest if the club queen is doubleton. Not only would that line be more profitable, it's also more likely to work. I win with the spade ace, and West plays the nine, presumably denying the queen or jack.

I cash my diamond winners, pitching two spades from dummy. West plays the five and jack of hearts, confirming my suspicion he began with king-queen-jack fifth. East pitches the four and five of spades, suggesting he began with a king-queen-jack fifth suit of his own. If I have read the cards correctly, we are down to this position:

	NORTH Jack ♠ -- ♥ A ♦ -- ♣ A 9 7 5
WEST Thomas ♠ 8 6 ♥ Q ♦ -- ♣ ? x		EAST Adrian ♠ Q J ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ ? x x
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ 7 ♥ 9 ♦ -- ♣ K J 6

East is three-to-two to have the club queen. But I can't afford to finesse him for it. If the finesse loses, I go down. So I cash the king and ace of clubs, hoping West has queen doubleton. He does, so I make three.

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

What happens if West continues hearts at trick two? If East has four clubs, there is no way for me to take four club tricks. If West has four clubs, I'm OK as long as East's club is the queen or ten. But if East has a small singleton club, there is nothing I can do. If I lead a club to my jack, West, with queen-ten fourth, can duck. If I play to the king and lead the jack, he can duck that. Given neither play works, I might as well lead a club to the jack in case East has queen fourth. If clubs don't come home, I will need to establish diamond tricks, and my job will be easier if I haven't set up club tricks for the opponents.

West's diamond switch offered me extra chances in the club suit. Had I decided to win the diamond ace and play on clubs, I could cash the king, then lead the jack and duck it. This allows me to pick up a singleton queen or ten in West's hand and any singleton in East's hand.

In retrospect, I think that ducking the diamond ace was a mistake. The opponents sold out to one notrump with 20 high-card points between them, so it is unlikely that either of them has a singleton. Some "dogs that don't bark" inferences are easy to miss, but I shouldn't have missed this one. Selling out at a low level and declining to take a cheap sacrifice are two items on my list of non-barking dogs to watch out for. Ducking the heart was fairly safe, but ducking the diamond was not. If West had finally found a spade shift, I could go down on normal breaks. Not that he's apt to find a spade shift, but clubs aren't apt to be four-one either. So why risk it? Of course, I did gain two tricks with my mistake. That's the key to winning bridge: profit from your mistakes.

Our counterparts played one notrump making two, so we win an imp.

Table 1: +150
Table 2: -120

Result on Board 2: +1 imp
Total: +11 imps