Free Weekly Instant Tournament - September 1 - Board 4

Board 4
Both sides vulnerable

♠ 5 2  ♥ A K 10 9  ♦ K 10  ♣ Q 10 9 7 5

Three passes to me. I have only 14 Casino points (HCP plus spade length). Conventional wisdom is you need 15 Casino points to open in fourth seat, but I think that's wrong. Average is 13 1/3. I think anything above average is worth opening, so I open with one club.

LHO passes, partner responds one spade, and RHO passes. I bid one notrump, and partner bids three spades, invitational. I have a minimum in high cards and no spade fit. And partner's spades probably aren't very good, since he didn't open with a weak two bid. So I'm not worth an acceptance. It is close, however. As minimums go, this a good hand. Four controls, three tens, two nines. But I think I need a bit more than that to accept with a small doubleton spade.

I pass. RHO leads the diamond ace.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
		Pass	Pass
Pass	1 ♣	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	3 ♠
(All pass)

I'm not sure why partner didn't open two spades with that hand. Because of the four-card heart suit perhaps? If he felt that way, he should have opened one spade. You have to bid either two or one. Passing with that suit isn't an option. Besides, if you're just going to ignore the heart suit and treat the hand a spade one-suiter anyway, what does passing accomplish?

East plays the diamond six, presumably encouraging with the queen. Should I play the jack or deuce? The jack suggests I have shortness, since it would be an unlikely play from jack third. I want West to worry that I have three diamonds so that he might shift to a trump, so I play the deuce.

West continues with the nine of diamonds. East plays the three. Does West's failure to shift to a trump mark him with the trump queen? No. He might have a stiff trump, which would also be an unattractive shift. Or he might have six diamonds and be unconcerned about a diamond ruff, since his partner will be overruffing. Or he might decide that stopping the ruff is the wrong approach altogether. Forcing declarer to ruff a loser is sometimes a better strategy than leading trump.

Imagine, for example, I had two small diamonds left and king-queen sixth of spades. Two rounds of spades stops the ruff. But who says I need the ruff? I may be able to pitch the third diamond somewhere. As long as I have the diamond king to stop the suit, there is no hurry to dispose of my third diamond. Knocking out the diamond king, however, may give me a problem. I win, play a spade to the queen, and it holds. Now what? What if I can't take my pitch without drawing trump first? If I play another trump, the defense can cash a diamond. If I ruff the diamond, I can't lead up to the spade king.

This is only one scenario where exposing the third-round diamond loser is a better strategy than leading trump. I'm sure you can think of others. In short, there is a variety of reasons West might have for not shifting to a trump. So I see no reason to spurn the spade finesse.

Should I take a first-round finesse or cash the ace to guard against a stiff queen? If I play a spade to the ace, I must then return to dummy with a heart to take the spade finesse. If the finesse loses and West plays another heart, I have a problem. If I take the heart finesse, East might win and give his partner a heart ruff. 

That's not even the only problem with this line. I may be able to set up two club tricks, so I can avoid a heart finesse altogether. But I can't do that if I waste heart entries. Suppose West has honor-jack tight of clubs, for example. After I draw trump, I play a club. If he hops and plays a heart, I win and lead the queen of clubs. I know from the opening lead West doesn't have both high club honors, so if East doesn't cover, I can let it ride safely, pinning the jack

To keep my heart entries intact, I'm going to pay off to a stiff queen of spades offside. I play a low spade to the jack. West wins with the queen and continues with the spade ten to East's seven and my ace.

If I draw the last trump, I have to pitch dummy's fifth club. Is there any scenario where I need that fifth club? Perhaps. If the opponents make a mistake and play a second round of clubs for me, I get two ruffs. Say, for example, West hops with honor third of clubs and plays another one. I ruff out East's jack and still have two heart entries to ruff out his other honor and cash my tricks. Or suppose West ducks with honor-jack third and East wins and plays another club. Again, I can score two ruffs, setting up two club tricks, and still have a heart to get back to cash them.

Neither of those mistakes is likely. But they are possible, and I can't exploit them without five clubs in dummy. I don't see any pressing need to draw the last trump. So why not lead a club now to give the opponents a chance to make a mistake?

I play a club, West plays the deuce, and East takes dummy's nine with the jack. East returns the diamond queen. I ruff. West follows with the diamond five.

The club suit didn't pan out. I draw the last trump, pitching a club from dummy. West pitches the heart six; East follows with the spade nine. 

West pitched a heart? What heart holding might he be pitching from? Not queen third. His partner might have jack doubleton. Queen fourth? Maybe. Although with that holding he might have shifted to a heart at trick two, trying to give his partner a heart ruff.

I play the heart deuce--seven--ace--four. Now that I've seen the four, I know West's six was his lowest. The robots almost always pitch count cards if the suit hasn't been played yet. So it appears West made a careless discard from three small hearts.

I lead the club ten. East covers with the ace. I ruff, and West follows with the four. Now jack of hearts--eight--king--queen. Making four.

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

Plus 170 is worth only 54%. I thought dropping the offside heart queen might have been worth more. But most declarers dropped it. Some dropped the spade queen also and made five. Perhaps because of West's failure to shift to a trump at trick two? As I said at the time, West has other reasons for not shifting to a trump. I don't think the inference he has the queen is strong enough to make an anti-percentage play in the suit.

I did, however, make a mistake in not drawing the last trump. There was a slight advantage in not drawing it, and at the time I didn't think it could cost. But I was wrong.

To see why, suppose West did have honor-jack doubleton of clubs as I hoped. I play a club. He hops and leads a heart. I win and lead the club queen. If East covers, great! But what if he ducks?  If I pitch a heart, the club jack drops, but now I'm stuck in dummy in this position::

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

The spade nine is still out. If West has it, I'm in trouble.

In fact, suppose East is clever enough to duck the club queen even with honor-jack fourth remaining. Now if I pitch a heart, I could actually go down. The clubs don't set up, so I might lose a trump and the heart queen. That might teach me to draw trump.