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Withhold Information.

Do not tell the opponents what they do not need to know. That applies equally in bidding and in the play of the hand. Of course, in bidding, you need to explore with your partner to find the right level and denomination but if you can, avoid telling them too much!

Our declarer here fell into that trap. It was all about overtricks but since Pairs is the game, they are rather important!

 

 

 

North-South were playing a weak no-trump based system, bidding suits up the line. 2NT was invitational and North had plenty to accept. West chose to lead 2 (2nd  and 4^th leads) with East contributing 9 and your king winning the trick. What would you play at trick 2?

You have 9 certain tricks now whether you attack clubs or spades. Thus, you need overtricks. Our declarer found a way to make precisely 9 tricks and thus not a great score. Maybe frightened that they would lose contact with their own hand before they had taken their 4 heart tricks (that could happen if they played a club to the king, took a losing club finesse to West who exited a third club), they cashed AK before playing K and taking that losing club finesse. One day the queen will be where you want it!

West did not play a third round of clubs but attacked your Achilles Heel, diamonds. Declarer was thus restricted to taking 4 hearts, 3 clubs and A along with the spade they already had….9 tricks, a making contract but not very satisfying in the Pairs environment.

South told their opponents rather more than they needed to know about the lie of the honour cards. It is true that South was likely to have heart honours as they had bid the suit but we all know 1 could have been bid on a suit headed by the 5!

By the time West won their Q, they could count South for K,Q and probably J as well as A. Seeing South had no more than a 12 count for their 2NT bid, it was easy for West to find the diamond switch even though their own suit was only headed by the lowly 5!

 

West knew too much! With spades almost certain to break 4-2, play back the 7 at trick 2. You know where A is and it seems unlikely that East can signal anything as they follow suit. If East does turn up with A, you will still have 9 tricks by virtue of 2 in each black suit, 4 hearts and A. 

As it happened, West would likely duck the second round of spades. Even if you misguessed the location of the Q, you would have scored 2 spade tricks and hence a certain 10 tricks before the defence found the diamond switch. If West took the A, you have 3 tricks in that suit and with Q doubleton, almost certainly 12 in all (no time for a club finesse after a diamond switch!)

You could have still maintained contact with the South hand by taking an immediate finesse to the 10, and of course this time a rather successful one, leading you to 11 certain tricks, maybe even a 12^th depending on how West discards.

That line would limit you to 9 tricks had Q been in the 4-card suit. There was no certainty you would score overtricks by playing a second spade but cashing those heart honours first seemed to tell the opposition more than they needed to know. Keep them in the

for as long as you can.

Doubles…..

 

We all know what our double of 3 is? What, though, of our partner’s double of 4….and what should we do now? We are playing Teams.

Richard Solomon

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