Board 1
Neither vulnerable
On to the next tournament.
| ♠ A 4 ♥ Q J 10 ♦ 8 6 4 ♣ K Q 9 8 7 |
Partner passes, and RHO opens one diamond. Three small diamonds is a danger signal and argues for passing. But I do have a decent suit, and a two-club overcall takes away the whole one-level. It could work out badly, but I bid two clubs. LHO bids two spades, and RHO bids two notrump. LHO bids three spades, and RHO raises to game. Partner leads the deuce of clubs
| NORTH Robot ♠ 10 8 ♥ 8 7 6 ♦ A K J 5 3 ♣ A 10 6 |
||
| EAST Phillip ♠ A 4 ♥ Q J 10 ♦ 8 6 4 ♣ K Q 9 8 7 |
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| West | North | East | South |
| Robot | Robot | Phillip | Robot |
| Pass | 1 ♦ | 2 ♣ | 2 ♠ |
| Pass | 2 NT | Pass | 3 ♠ |
| Pass | 4 ♠ | (All pass) | |
Declarer plays low from dummy. It doesn't appear there is much to this deal. I just win the club and shift to a heart. We get one club trick and whatever heart and spade tricks we have coming to us. Is any other defense conceivable? Could partner have a stiff diamond? That would give declarer a 6-1-4-2 shape, leaving partner with ace-sixth or king-sixth of hearts. That doesn't seem likely. And even if that were the case, declarer wouldn't be ducking this trick. So a heart shift it is. I play the club queen and declarer follows with the jack. Now queen of hearts--ace--five--six.
Declarer continues with the deuce of spades to the seven and eight. I take my ace and lead the jack of hearts--king-- deuce--seven. Not sure what partner's echo was all about. I would play partner's five as attitude myself, saying, "You are on the right track. If you are contemplating any other defense, such as playing me for a singleton club, it isn't going to work." But I'm sure that's not what partner meant. Perhaps he was giving count?
Declarer plays the queen of spades to partner's king, and partner leads the heart three to my ten. It holds. Declarer has the rest. Down one.
| NORTH Robot ♠ 10 8 ♥ 8 7 6 ♦ A K J 5 3 ♣ A 10 6 |
||
| WEST Robot ♠ K 7 5 ♥ 5 4 3 2 ♦ Q 10 7 ♣ 5 4 2 |
EAST Phillip ♠ A 4 ♥ Q J 10 ♦ 8 6 4 ♣ K Q 9 8 7 |
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| SOUTH Robot ♠ Q J 9 6 3 2 ♥ A K 9 ♦ 9 2 ♣ J 3 |
Declarer could have made this by finessing in diamonds and pitching his heart, and at IMPs I presume he would do so. Should he have done so at matchpoints? The finesse gains if it works and diamonds are three-three. (It gains in other rare cases as well, such as when I have
| ♠ A K ♥ Q J x x ♦ x x ♣ K Q x x x. |
But we'll ignore such cases for now and factor them back in if the decision is close.) The finesse loses if it fails and diamonds are not three-three. (If they are, he breaks even by taking his heart pitch.) If we assume the finesse is 50-50, the finesse criteria cancel out. So, on a comparative basis, the finesse is right if diamonds are three-three and wrong if it isn't. If declarer judges a fair percentage of the field is in game and is getting a club lead, then settling for down one was the percentage play.
But hold on. Why was declarer even in this position? There is no reason to duck the club. Just go up with the ace and start trumps. The defense has only two trump entries, so they can't set up the heart trick and cash it in time. You can decide in the end position whether to risk the diamond finesse or not. In any event, now all you need is the finesse--or possibly a squeeze. You don't need a three-three diamond break as well.
There is one reason to duck the first trick. It gives you the option of hooking the club ten for a pitch. While it is quite unlikely I would have bid two clubs
with queen fifth, perhaps he would have tried this if I had played the club king at trick one.
This time it would have made no difference, but the club queen was still an extremely lazy play. There is nothing for the defense
to do except continue hearts whenever we get in. So partner can't
possibly care whether I have two club honors or not. If the club jack were in dummy, the falsecard would be trivial (and therefore less convincing). With the jack in declarer's hand, the potential gain from falsecarding doesn't jump out at you. But it needn't. Any time you see that a false card can't cost, you should
make it; it's not necessary to see how it might gain. My first thought when dummy hit was, "It doesn't appear there is much to this deal." That's often a dangerous thought. Here, it lulled be into carelessness.
Lowenthal was almost always alert to such situations. We once defended a four spade contract where John had opened one heart and I had shown four-card support. I led a heart, dummy hit with Jxx, and John had AKQxx. Since partner will soon know what you have, any decent defender would do what he could to conceal his holding from declarer, making it more difficult for him to place the remaining honors. Most would try a wimpy solution, like winning with the king and continuing with the ace. But a good declarer knows you might do this, so he won't pay much attention. John, however, was no wimp. He won with the ace and continued with a low one. I held my breath. Might declarer have some loser he has no way to avoid? If so, he might pitch it, figuring it can't hurt. Declarer thought this over a while, then ruffed and proceeded to misplace a critical card and go down.
Had John somehow surmised that declarer had no unavoidable loser to pitch? I thought about the problem from his point of view at trick one and didn't see how he could have.
"That was a risky play," I said.
"If it were riskless," said John, "it wouldn't work."
I absolutely love all the John Lowenthal stories.
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