Weekly Free Instant Tournament - Apr 8, 2022 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ --  ♥ A 8 7 6  ♦ A K 4  ♣ K J 7 5 4 2

RHO opens with one heart. I bid two clubs, and LHO makes a negative double. Partner passes and RHO bids two notrump. 

Partner has at least six spades. Despite the fact I have quite a good hand, it would be unwise to bid again, since the deal appears to be a misfit. I pass, as does LHO and partner. I lead the five of clubs.

	NORTH Robot ♠ K 10 4 3 ♥ 2 ♦ Q 10 7 6 2 ♣ Q 9 6
WEST Phillip ♠ -- ♥ A 8 7 6 ♦ A K 4 ♣ K J 7 5 4 2

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
			1 ♥
2 ♣	Double	Pass	2 NT
(All pass)

I don't care for North's double. He should have passed over two clubs.You don't want to stretch for a negative double with three cards in your opponent's suit. If partner is short in clubs, he will reopen. If he isn't and sells out, the hand is a misfit and you will be happy your side isn't declaring.

Declarer plays the club nine from dummy. Partner plays the three; declarer, the eight. Declarer apparently has ace-ten-eight of clubs. He is probably 2-5-3-3 or 3-5-2-3--more likely the latter, given partner's silence. Dummy and I have 22 HCP combined. If declarer has 12 to 14, that leaves partner with from four to six.

Declarer plays a heart from dummy--ten--king. My agreement is to split with the lower of touching honors, so I would have the jack-ten for that heart play. But I don't know what the robots' agreements are. Partner might have jack-ten or ten-nine. Either way, declarer will have to give up a second trick in hearts to establish his suit.

If I take the heart ace and continue clubs, I give declarer a third club trick. Offhand, that seems like a bad idea. But I do have four entries in declarer's suits. Perhaps plugging away at the club suit is the right approach.

What happens if I win this and continue clubs? Declarer will win and concede another heart. I continue clubs, setting up my suit. Declarer now has three heart tricks and three club tricks. If he has the spade ace, he has two more and makes his contract.

So continuing clubs fails if declarer has the spade ace. Can a passive defense work in that case? Let's say I duck this trick. What's the best that can happen? Perhaps declarer will play a diamond to dummy's ten and partner's jack. Now let's say partner has queen-jack-nine of spades and can exit safely in spades. Declarer wins in his hand and continues hearts. I can take two hearts and the ace-king of diamonds, but then I have to lead a club, handing declarer his eight trick.

Perhaps that's not how the play will go if I duck. But it's hard to see how any passive defense is going to work if declarer has the spade ace. Even if partner has the diamond jack and scores it, we still have only five tricks: three diamonds and two hearts. Where is the sixth trick coming from?

Since it appears we are doomed if declarer has the space ace, I must assume partner has it. If so, I might as well just plug away at clubs.  

The next question is: Which hand do I want declarer to win this club trick in? I can lead the king, forcing him to win it in his hand or the jack, forcing him to win it in dummy. Actually, it might be better to ask which hand I want him to win the third club trick in. If he is going to win this trick and set up hearts, I don't want him winning the third round of clubs in his hand, giving him easy access to his long heart. So I should lead the king now, forcing him to win the third round in dummy.

I win with the heart ace and lead the club king. Partner pitches the spade seven and declarer wins with the ace. The robots tend to play count on the first discard, so partner probably has six spades, making declarer 3-5-2-3, as I had assumed.

Declarer cashes the heart queen. Too bad I have the six. If I had A872, I could drop the seven. Then if declarer had KQ96x, he would have to guess whether to continue low (hoping the jack is now singleton) or the nine (hoping the eight is singleton). Since I have the six, declarer doesn't have the option of smothering the eight. So if he is missing the jack, he will be forced to get the suit right. I play the heart six, declarer plays the diamond deuce from dummy, and partner follows with the heart five. 

Surprisingly, declarer doesn't continue hearts. He switches to the spade deuce. Now what? Can declarer come to enough tricks in the spade suit? Here is the current position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ K 10 4 3 ♥ -- ♦ Q 10 7 6 ♣ Q
WEST Phillip ♠ -- ♥ 8 7 ♦ A K 4 ♣ J 7 4 2

I'm still not sure who has the heart jack. It's worse for the defense if declarer has it, so let's assume he does. If so, he can take a second heart trick. Two hearts plus three clubs is five, so he needs three spade tricks. If he had queen-jack third of spades, he would have led a spade honor, so he has at best queen nine. That means two spade tricks, finessing against partner's jack, is the best he can do. He's down at least one.

There is no reason to hold on to my low diamond. I pitch it. Declarer plays the spade king from dummy. Partner wins with the ace and shifts to the five of diamonds. Declarer plays the eight. I win with the king and play a club to dummy's queen. Partner pitches the spade five. Declarer plays a spade from dummy and partner inserts the nine. That's a nice card to see. Declarer has only one spade trick coming. He takes the spade queen and heart jack, and I have the rest. Down two.

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

It turns out the club king play would have been necessary if declarer had the spade jack. Here is the position if we give declarer queen-jack of spades and I exit with the club jack instead of the king. The lead is in dummy:

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

Declarer leads a spade from dummy to his queen. If partner hops with the ace, declarer can take three spades, two hearts, and three clubs for eight tricks. So partner must duck. Declarer then leads the jack of spades, and partner must duck again. Declarer now switches to hearts and establishes his eighth trick there, with the club ace as an entry. Exiting with the club king instead of the jack deprives him of the entry to his long heart trick and defeats the contract.

I admit I didn't work that out at the time. It just seemed wrong on principle to leave declarer with a late entry to his hand. I can afford to leave him with a late entry to dummy, because the dummy is less of a threat. He needs to knock out more high cards to set up winners in dummy. I try to avoid playing on general principles. But sometimes you have to. Sometimes there are just too many possibilities to solve the position completely.

Down two was worth 79%. Some defenders beat this only one or even allowed declarer to make it. And some competed to three clubs and went down. 

I found this to be a very difficult deal to defend. I considered all kinds of layouts. The paragraph including the question "Can a passive defense work in that case?" would have been much longer had I included all the rabbit holes I went down. What if declarer has the diamond jack and tries to set up diamonds? What if declarer has ace-jack of spades? Does it matter whether partner has jack-ten or ten-nine of hearts?

In fact, there was no reason to ask any of those questions. The key was reaching the conclusion: "Even if partner has the diamond jack and scores it, we still have only five tricks: three diamonds and two hearts. Where is the sixth trick coming from?" Once you realize that, you realize that no passive defense can work if declarer has the spade ace, so can stop thinking about them. Had that thought occurred to me earlier, I would have saved myself a lot of time.

Incidentally, note that North's negative double worked out badly, as I would expect it to. If he passes, he goes plus. If he doubles, he goes minus. With three cards in the opponent's suit, that is frequently the case. Passing and letting partner reopen with shortness can keep you out of trouble when the hand is a misfit. Of course I don't mean you should pass all hands with three cards in the opponent's suit. This is just one factor among many in deciding whether to act after an overcall. But it is a factor I believe most players don't give enough weight.

I am still in first place, with 82%.