Jaz Hands -- Board 9

Board 9
Opponents vulnerable

This week, we're starting a new series. We will be analyzing a match played by Jazlene Ong and Gideon Tan, from Singapore, in the Southeast Asian Bridge Federation Mixed Team Championships. They came in third in the event. This is a match they played against the eventual winners.

In return, Jazlene will be reviewing one of my sessions in her Jaz Plays Bridge channel.

In Gargoyle Chronicles style, we'll discuss one board per week in depth. The boards will be presented from Jazlene's perspective. Their opponents are Desy Noervita and Paulus Sugandi, from Indonesia.

You can also watch this analysis on our YouTube channel.

♠ A 10 5  ♥ K 8 6  ♦ Q 7  ♣ A Q 10 8 2

North and East pass. Jazlene opens one notrump; Gideon bids two clubs, Stayman; and Jazlene bids two diamonds. Paulus chimes in with a double.

This is a strange time to double. Presumably you are going to be on lead, so why double? It might help partner a bit in the defense, but I suspect it will be a bigger help to declarer.

Gideon raises to 3NT, and Paulus leads the spade three.

	NORTH Gideon ♠ K ♥ 10 7 5 4 2 ♦ A 6 3 ♣ K 9 7 4
	SOUTH Jazlene ♠ A 10 5 ♥ K 8 6 ♦ Q 7 ♣ A Q 10 8 2

West	North	East	South
Paulus	Gideon	Desy	Jazlene
	Pass	Pass	1 NT
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♦
Double	3 NT	(All pass)

Gideon apparently decided to treat his weak five-card heart suit as a four-card suit. Coincidentally, I recently discussed with Jazlene the possibility of bidding Smolen without four cards in the other major, and this looks like a good candidate.

Missing a five-three heart fit when partner has four spades may be OK. So if partner responds two spades to Stayman, you can bid three notrump.  But missing a five-three heart fit might not be a good idea if partner is short in spades. So, if partner responds two diamonds, you can bid three spades, Smolen, to show five hearts. Ostensibly this shows four spades as well. But who cares? If partner doesn't have heart support, she's bidding three notrump. Ideally, you do this without ever discussing it with partner, so it might keep the opponents off a spade lead. Of course, having discussed it (or even having done it once), partner would now have to disclose that possibility, so that advantage disappears.

Even if this is what Gideon was planning (and I doubt it was), the double of two diamonds throws a monkey wrench into the plan. If you bid three spades and partner doesn't have a diamond stopper, she might choose to bid four hearts with a doubleton honor, which is unlikely to be right. Even worse, she might chose the four-three spade fit, which is even less likely to be right. So you pretty much have to bid three notrump now.

Anyway, here we are in three notrump. Jazlene wins in dummy with the king and Desy plays the deuce.

The opponents play standard attitude, so presumably Desy discouraged because she has nothing in spades, giving Paulus queen-jack fourth of spades and five or six diamonds to the king-jack-ten. The double of two diamonds and the play at trick one have given you a pretty clear picture.

Incidentally, I don't agree with Desy's spade deuce. Normally, attitude in notrump is about the suit led. But I think you should make an exception when you know partner didn't lead his best suit. Here, I think discouraging should promise a diamond card. If partner gets in, you don't want him switching to a diamond, which is probably what he will do if you discourage in spades. So I would encourage even with the five small spades Desy presumably holds.

Back to the play. You are looking at eight tricks. If the heart ace is on onside, you have nine. So let's assume it's offside. Is there any way to make this if that's the case?

Running five clubs might put some pressure on West. But if you do that, you can't lead up to your heart king anymore. So running five clubs is out. Will it accomplish anything to cash four clubs before playing a heart?

Probably not if West defends accurately. But if he has, say, ace-jack third of hearts, he may be afraid to pitch one. And he may be afraid to come down the king doubleton of diamonds as well. If he comes down to 

♠ Q J  ♥ A J 9  ♦ K J 10  ♣ --

and you read it, you have a shot. 

You now lead a heart off dummy. If East plays low, you duck. West wins and exits a spade. You toss him back in with a spade and he must give your ninth trick.

You would need to be quite confident the heart ace is offside to do that. If it's onside, you are going down in a cold contract. But I don't see what it hurts to run four rounds of clubs to test the waters, even if you just wind up leading a heart to the king anyway.

Actually, I take that back. Maybe there is a reason not to cash four clubs. West doesn't know you have a running club suit. For all he knows, hearts is your source of tricks. So, if you lead a heart to the king and the ace is offside, he may duck. If you run four rounds of clubs first, he won't. He now knows the heart king is your ninth trick.

For whatever reason, Jazlene plays a heart from dummy at trick two. Desy plays the nine. Jazlene plays the king and it holds. Making three.

	NORTH Gideon ♠ K ♥ 10 7 5 4 2 ♦ A 6 3 ♣ K 9 7 4
WEST Paulus ♠ Q J 8 3 ♥ J 3 ♦ K J 10 8 2 ♣ J 3		EAST Desy ♠ 9 7 6 4 2 ♥ A Q 9 ♦ 9 5 4 ♣ 6 5
	SOUTH Jazlene ♠ A 10 5 ♥ K 8 6 ♦ Q 7 ♣ A Q 10 8 2

I'm surprised Desy ducked the heart ace. Surely it's right to hop and play a diamond.

If declarer has to lose the lead only once, it makes no difference whether you hop or not. (You know from the Stayman auction that partner has at least two hearts, so you aren't crashing his stiff honor.) But if declarer has to lose the lead twice, you want to be the one to gain the lead first, so you can put a diamond through.

Imagine, for example, that Jazlene held

♠ Q J x  ♥ K x x  ♦ Q x  ♣ A Q J x x

Now ducking the heart gives her the contract.

At the other table, South also opened one notrump. North didn't ignore the five-card heart suit, but he chose a middle ground. He transferred to hearts, then bid three notrump, treating his hand as balanced to give partner the option of spurning the five-three fit. South corrected to four hearts and made five, picking up 2 imps.