Free Weekly Instant Tournament - January 6 - Board 4

Board 4
Both vulnerable

♠ A 8  ♥ A 6 5 2  ♦ K 10 8 7  ♣ Q 7 3

LHO deals and passes. Partner passes, and RHO opens with one diamond. I have an opening bid, but I don't have support for the unbid suits, so I can't double. Besides, they've bid my best suit. When that happens, it's usually right to pass.

I pass, LHO responds one spade, partner passes, and RHO bids one notrump. Again I have no reason to bid. I pass.

LHO corrects to two diamonds, which is passed around to me. Partner has at most one diamond and passed up two opportunities to enter the auction, so he doesn't have much. While I don't in general like to defend at the two level when the opponents have found a fit, I have no reason to believe we can make anything, and we have good chances to beat two diamonds. So I pass once again.

It's not clear what to lead. I'd like to lead declarer's shortness to start an assault on his trump suit. But I don't know what his shortness is. Any of the three side suits could be right. And any is dangerous. I choose a club simply on the principle that's it's usually wrong to lead from an ace. But I have no confidence it's right. Clubs could easily be declarer's best suit.

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

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
	Pass	Pass	1 ♦
Pass	1 ♠	Pass	1 NT
Pass	2 ♦	(All pass)

Dummy and I have 20 HCP combined, leaving 20 for the unseen hands. Declarer has 12 to 14, so that leaves partner with six to eight HCP. Let's hope some of them are in clubs.

Some of them--in fact, most of them--are. Partner takes the club ace, declarer following with the four, and returns the jack. Declarer plays the king.

I'd like to unblock. Could partner be returning the jack without the ten? Might he have ace-jack third? It seems unlikely that he would he be selling to two diamonds with nine cards in the majors. And if declarer loses control, I certainly don't want clubs to be blocked. So I play the queen.

What do I expect declarer to do now? If he has a doubleton spade, he will probably lead a spade, preparing to ruff spades in his hand. If he doesn't play a spade, it's likely he has three.

He doesn't. He plays a heart, presumably trying to reach dummy to take a trump finesse. If he wins in dummy and plays a diamond to the jack, it's probably right to duck. If I win, I have nothing useful to do, and declarer will have an easy time. If I duck and declarer then cashes the trump ace, he will be in trouble. I will be able to draw his trump when I get in.

I play a low heart. Declarer plays the ten, and partner wins with the king. I wasn't expecting that. That's partner's last high-card point. Declarer has everything else.We have five tricks in top cards. We need one more to beat this.

I expect partner to play a club, but he shifts to the three of diamonds and declarer plays the deuce. Surely partner would have tried to cash a club if it were possible one was cashing. That must mean he started with five, making declarer 3-4-4-2. 

I don't care for this diamond shift. Ducking is unlikely to be effective now what declarer knows I have the diamond king. Still, I don't see how ducking can hurt. If I win the diamond and play a club and declarer ruffs, the defense can never score more than my two aces. And if declarer has another club, our club trick isn't going anywhere. I can always cash it when I win the heart ace.

I play the diamond seven. Declarer wins in dummy with the nine and, to my surprise, plays another diamond. Partner discards the club deuce, and declarer takes his ace. Declarer now leads the spade queen. I take the ace, reaching this position:

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

If I draw trumps, declarer can't afford to drive my heart ace. He must cash however many spades he can, leaving the rest for us. If he has queen-jack-ten of spades, we'll take the last two tricks for down one. If partner has the spade ten, we'll take the last three tricks for down two.

I play king and a diamond. Partner pitches the eight and three of hearts. That suggests he has the spade suit stopped. Indeed he does. Declarer cashes two spades, and we have the rest. Down two.

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

Plus 200 is worth 96%. Five of the ten declarers in two diamonds made their contract. Only one other declarer was down two.

A more astute declarer might have made this by not playing a second round of trumps. I gave him the contract when I ducked my heart ace. If I hop and play ace and a spade, I can get a spade ruff when I'm in with the diamond king. Once I ducked, we could no longer beat this by force.

Should I have hopped with the heart ace? It's not clear. I had no particular reason to think partner had the heart king, but playing him for that card is an easy way to beat this. And, while my plan of ducking when declarer plays a diamond to jack seemed like a strong defense, I didn't have a clear route to six tricks in mind. I was just playing on general principles.

Playing for a layout where you can see a sure beat is often better than playing on general principles and hoping something good happens. Still, hopping and going after a spade ruff is playing for a very specific layout. I'm not sure what the best defense was.