Event 3 - Match 9 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither vulnerable

♠ A Q 10 7 6 ♥ A J 7 5 4 ♦ 10 3 ♣ 6

LHO opens one diamond. Partner, of course, bids three clubs, passed to me.

There is something to be said for bidding three spades and driving to game in one major or the other. Since I expect to go down in three clubs, I might as well get to a contract that scores better if it happens to make. I would do that if the opponents promised they wouldn't double. In the absence of such an assurance, however, it seems wiser to accept a small loss in three clubs. I pass, as does LHO. RHO leads the queen of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
Marcin	Phillip	Daniel	Jack
		1 ♦	3 ♣
(All pass)

That's quite a hand for a pre-empt opposite an unpassed partner! I would be afraid of missing three notrump. At least our prospects of making three clubs are better than I expected.

East and I both encourage on the diamond queen (East with the nine). West continues with the five of diamonds to East's king. East continues with the diamond deuce.

I don't believe East sold out with seven diamonds. He must think West has a doubleton diamond instead of me. Could West have found some clever reason to lead a low diamond at trick two from queen-jack third? I pitch the spade four and ruff in dummy. West follows with the diamond seven. I guess West had queen jack fourth. (East would surely not expect him to have a doubleton if he had queen-jack fifth.) West should have played the jack, of course. His partner knows what he has at this point, so there is no reason to bring me into the loop.

I play the spade ace--five--eight--deuce, then ruff a spade to my hand. East plays the nine; West, the three. If the carding is honest, spades are three-three. Everyone follows to three rounds of trumps (East playing five, nine, jack), and I am down to this position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ Q 10 ♥ A J 7 ♦ -- ♣  --
	SOUTH Jack ♠ -- ♥ 10 9 3 ♦ -- ♣ 7 3

I've taken six tricks. The heart ace and two more trumps tricks will bring me up to nine. If I can take a second heart trick, I'll make an overtrick. I'll start by taking a heart finesse. Then I can decide whether to repeat the finesse or play East for king-queen doubleton.

Which heart should I lead? There is a slim chance West has both heart honors, If I head low, he might duck, hoping I have nine-eight third and intend to finesse the seven. If that happens, dummy's jack will hold. I can then ruff out a spade and take all the remaining tricks. Leading the nine might create a more effective illusion. But it wouldn't help, since I can't afford to overtake the nine with the jack.

I play the heart three--deuce--jack. East wins with the king and taps me with the diamond ace. I pitch a spade from dummy.

It appears East is 3-2-5-3. He has eight high-card points in the minors. Assuming he has 12 to 14 high-card points in total, that leaves him with four to six in the majors, so he can have the following combinations of high cards:

♠ J, ♥ K

♠ J, ♥ K Q

♠ K, ♥ K

By restricted choice, the heart finesse is a four-to-one favorite--and that's before considering that East could have a singleton heart if I made a wrong assumption somewhere. I repeat the heart finesse. It works. Making four.

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

The ruff-sluff didn't matter. As the cards lie, there is no way the opponents can take more than one major-suit trick. Here I was thinking three clubs would have no play, and the opponents can't stop four.

How should East card at trick one? A discouraging diamond would suggest a heart shift, since that is dummy's weaker suit. East can stand a heart shift, but if West's hearts are good enough for a shift to accomplish anything, he might find it on his own. I think to discourage in diamonds East needs either better hearts or worse spades, although I'd hate to have to pinpoint exactly where the dividing line is.

Does four hearts have a chance? If our opponents bid and make it at the other table, they will tie the match. But it should be easy to beat. West will signal with the diamond queen at trick one, and East will underlead for a spade switch. Actually, I don't think that's even necessary. Say West starts by cashing two diamonds then switches to a club. Declarer leads a low heart to the jack (keeping the ten-nine in dummy so he can remain in dummy after repeating the heart finesse). East can now defeat the contract by giving declarer a ruff-sluff. Underleading the diamond at trick two is certainly easier.

Our opponents don't put our teammates to the test, however. They reach the improbable contract of three spades and go down two, so we pick up six imps to win the match by 13. We win the event with 165 victory points, 17 points ahead of second place.

Time for a break while I ponder whether there will be a Match 4 and, if so, what format it will take.

Table 1:  +130
Table 2: +100

Score on Board 8: +6 imps
Result on Match 9: +13 imps (19 VP)

Final Total: 165 VP (out of 270)

Event 3 - Match 9 - Board 7

Board 7
Both sides vulnerable

♠ Q 6 ♥ A K Q 7 3 ♦ 8 7 4 ♣ Q 5 3

I open 1NT (12-14), and everyone passes. LHO leads the ace of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
Daniel	Jack	Marcin	Phillip
			1 NT
(All pass)

There is no way for me to ask about this opening lead, but I guess it's not going to affect my play at trick one. I'll find out soon enough what the lead is from. I just hope diamonds are four-three. Otherwise they can beat me off the top.

I play low from dummy, East plays the five, and I discourage with the four. West continues with the king of diamonds--six--nine--eight, then the queen of diamonds, on which East plays the ten. Good. He followed. The opponents can take four diamonds and two spades. I can't afford any other losers.

West cashes the diamond deuce. If the club finesse wins, I'm making this. Do I have any chance if the club finesse loses? For starters, I need for the opponents to avoid cashing their spades. Let's say West cooperates and switches to a heart at trick five. Now what? I float the club queen. Might East take his king and dutifully continues hearts? That's certainly possible. East might conclude I wouldn't leave two heart winners stranded in an entryless hand. What happens if the club finesse wins? I have no entry back to my hand to cash hearts, but that's OK. I've taken five clubs and one heart. I need only one more trick, so I can drive the ace and king of spades and score a spade for my seventh trick.

The problem with this plan is that I have to find a pitch from dummy on this trick. I can't afford a club if the club king is offside. So I must pitch a spade. Now, if they do find a spade switch, they may score a long spade for down two--or even down three if East has five spades.

If I think I am unlikely to make this contract anyway if the club king is offiside, perhaps I should pitch a club on this trick. Four club tricks are sufficient if the finesse works, and pitching a club ensures I can't go down more than one. No, I can't bring myself to do that. I hate to rely solely on a finesse when I have some chance to make this contract if the finesse is off. I pitch the five of spades from dummy; East pitches the heart deuce.

East's heart pitch probably ensured a spade switch. But it also gives me an extra chance. East might not have appreciated the value of a holding like eight fourth of hearts. So I may now be able to score five hearts, a spade, and a club. To keep that possibility open, I must hold all my hearts. I probably don't need all of my clubs. If West has king fourth of clubs, I don't have the entries to take a third-round finesse against him anyway. Could I need both my spades? Possibly. Say, for example, West shifts to a spade, and East wins and plays a heart. If I have saved both my spades, I have the option of trying to run hearts, pitching down to a stiff club ace in dummy, then leading my last spade. I might be hard pressed to decide to play that way, but I see no reason not to leave the option open. So I pitch the five of clubs.

West shifts to the deuce of clubs. That's unexpected. He surely has the club king. He wouldn't shift from a worthless club holding and risk picking up the queen in his partner's hand. So East must have both spade honors, else West would have doubled one notrump.

Why is West playing clubs? Maybe he is playing passively, letting me break the majors myself. Or perhaps he has king fourth of clubs and wants to get clubs led twice to eliminate any chance of his being squeezed. My gut feel is that the latter is more likely. Defenders don't usually lead dummy's source of tricks except as a communication-killing maneuver. It is a bit strange that East, with a singleton club, nine cards in the major, and ace-king of spades, would have sold to one notrump. But, in general, I have more faith in inferences from the card play than I do in inferences from the bidding.

Do I have any chance if West does have king fourth of clubs? Suppose I win the club queen in my hand and play a spade. East wins. To give me a problem, he must switch to a heart. I take the ace and cash the king, pitching a club from dummy. I am now down to this position, needing four more tricks:

	NORTH Jack ♠ J 10 ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ A J 10
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ 6 ♥ Q 7 3 ♦ -- ♣ 3

A club to the ten will succeed when West began with king third of clubs. If I judge that he began with king fourth, I can cash the heart queen, pitching a club from dummy. If my hearts are good, I'm home. If not, I take a club finesse, and drive the spade ace, hoping East doesn't have another heart. That requires West to have begun with

♠ x ♥ J x x x ♦ A K Q x ♣ K x x x,

which I suppose is possible, since the opponents are inexplicably not playing Astro (where you can show this pattern by bidding two clubs, followed by two notrump if partner bids two diamonds).

I'm not sure yet which line I will take. But it costs me nothing to aim for this position and decide later. I play a low club from dummy, East plays the eight, and I win with the queen. I play the six of spades from my hand--seven--nine--king. East doesn't find the heart switch. He makes it easy for me by cashing the spade ace--queen--deuce--ten.

If I had any doubts that West has the club king, they are gone now. East, looking at the ace and king of spades, would not have ducked the setting trick. So I am now cold. East switches to a heart. I cash the ace, king, and queen of hearts, pitching clubs from dummy, play a club to the jack, and claim.

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

Our opponents at the other table made an overtrick in one notrump, so we lose an imp. I could have tied that result. When I won the club queen, I could have cashed out for eight tricks, giving up on king fourth of clubs. But it could hardly be right to risk the contract for a one-imp gain..

I do, however, think I made a mistake in pitching a spade from dummy at trick four, since the misdefense I was hoping for, while possible, was unlikely. It would have been the right play if I weren't vulnerable, since the cost of extra undertricks is small. But when I'm not in game and when extra undertricks are 100 points each, I should be more concerned about them. If I had finished minus 300 in this contract, I would have cost myself more than I stood to gain by making it.

Table 1: +90
Table 2: -120

Result on Board 7: -1 imp
Total: +7 imps

Event 3 - Match 9 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ 7 ♥ Q 10 7 2 ♦ A 10 9 8 5 3 ♣ A 4

I open one diamond in second seat. Partner bids one spade; I rebid two diamonds. Partner raises to three diamonds and buys it. The opponents must have about half the deck. Strange that they didn't put up much of a fight. LHO leads the queen of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
Daniel	Jack	Marcin	Phillip
		Pass	1 ♦
Pass	1 ♠	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	3 ♦	(All pass)

To make this, I need either to avoid two trump losers or to avoid a heart loser. In general, when missing the king and jack (and with the ace and queen in opposite hands), the best play for one loser is ace and another with a nine-card fit and a double finesse (lead the queen, then finesse the ten if it loses) with an eight-card fit. If we ignore the bidding, this rule gives the correct answer here: Ace and another loses to king-jack third on my right; the double finesse loses to king-jack third on my left. Those holdings cancel out. Either play loses to a void on my right. The two holdings that make a difference are a void on my left (where the double finesse is the winner) and king-jack doubleton on my left (where ace and another is the winner). Since king-jack doubleton is more likely than a void, ace and another is the better play in isolation.

If we take the bidding into account, the king-jack thirds in opposite hands do not cancel out. West's pass over one diamond makes king jack third on my left more likely than king-jack third on my right. Fortunately, this makes ace and another even more attractive. If it made ace and another less attractive (for example, if the ace and queen were switched), then it would be harder to decide what to do, since the considerations from the auction would be difficult to quantify.

East plays the club six. Assuming he is encouraging, he should have either king-six doubleton or king-six-five. With four or more clubs, he would have a higher spot to play.

I see no reason to win the first trick. If I duck, maybe West will switch to a diamond to stop heart ruffs and solve my problem in that suit. So I let West's queen hold the trick. West shifts to the spade ace; East plays the four. Why is West shifting to spades? There doesn't appear to be any hurry to cash spade tricks. He might have ace doubleton and be aiming for an overruff. But if East has king fifth, why is he discouraging?

Whatever West was up to, he changes his mind. He shifts back to clubs, playing the five to East's king and my ace.

I'm not too worried that anyone has a singleton heart. So I might as well take a heart finesse now. If the jack holds, I can cash the heart ace, play a diamond to my ace, and take a ruffing finesse in hearts, conceivably making the contract even if I have two trump losers. I play the seven of hearts--eight--jack--king.

East shifts to the ten of spades. The ten? West shifted to the spade ace holding ace-king? Well, that explains the shift. He probably has ace-king fourth and was hoping to give his partner a ruff. It's interesting that Jack is unable to alter his lead agreements according to context. He leads ace from ace-king on opening lead, so he does the same thing at trick two, unable to reason that the agreement makes no sense when dummy has the queen.

The attempt to give his partner a ruff is futile, of course, since I would never rebid two diamonds with three-card support for partner's major. And "never" is not an overbid.

Lowenthal and I once had this auction:

John	Me
1 ♦	1 ♠
2 ♦	3 NT
4 ♠

"I thought we never rebid two diamonds with three spades," I said as John began to table the dummy.

"Absolutely!" agreed John. "How would I know what to do over three notrump if I had three spades?" Then he laid down

♠ J x x x ♥ x  ♦ A Q J 10 x x x ♣ x.

But I digress. I ruff East's spade with the five of diamonds; West follows with the spade three. I cash the diamond ace--deuce---six--jack. My only loser now is the diamond king. Making three.

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

West's hand looks like a pretty normal one spade overcall to me. The spades are good enough for a four-card-suit overcall, and the side five-card club suit offers some total-trick protection. (Often a fifth card in a side suit is as good as an extra trump.) If West overcalls, partner will bid one notrump, and East will cue-bid two diamonds. I will bid three diamonds (which is strictly competitive after partner's one notrump response). East, thinking his partner has five spades, will go on to three spades. This turns out to be an excellent decision, since both three diamonds and three spades are making.

Our teammates, unfortunately, also sold to three diamonds. The board is another push, the fourth of this match.

Table 1: +110
Table 2: -110

Result on Board 6: 0 imps
Total: +8 imps