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Common Sense: you are “counting” on it!

A fairly common defensive situation today. It may only be a part-score but at the end of the match, those plus or minus 5 imps can have a big impact on the result.

 

You are West and lead 3 and see a rather poor dummy. 1 was 3+ clubs and 2NT 18-19 balanced. That kind of dummy gives you hope! There’s even more hope when partner’s J wins trick 1. Your partner returns 8 to your Q and you force out declarer’s A at trick 3 with everyone still following. Next comes K from South which wins the trick and a second spade to your J with dummy’s Q winning that trick.
Next comes 2 from dummy to East’s 8 and declarer’s Q…and you? You are playing reverse signals (high-low showing an odd number of cards).

We can play some silly club contracts where one player opens a short club and their partner does not have enough hcp to respond but is also short in the club department. Indeed, when you see the South hand below, you will see that North-South do not want to be playing in clubs even though South had 4 of them.
Indeed, the best contract for North-South is a major suit (either suit) part-score (making 9 tricks) though understandably, North thought that one bid was enough on their hand…and getting partner to play 3 of a major would be tricky if they continued the bidding. Here are the four hands:

 

So, in 2NT, routinely, South ducked the first two rounds of diamonds, won their ace and then pretended that they only held 2 spades by leading the king. However, when West played J on the second round, East could tell that South held three spades as West only played J because they had to. So, even if West was not giving count (they should), East knew not to take the second round of spades.
Thus, the declarer turned his attention to the heart suit and played low towards their queen, rather hoping the finesse would lose…and that each defender had three hearts. Their prayers were answered when West won their king and cashed their 13^th diamond. They exited a heart but South now had 3 heart tricks to go with 2 spades, A and 2 club tricks via a finesse to make their contract.

A helpful honour
The J in dummy should have been a clue even if the defence were not giving count. If they were, then surely East’s 8 (or 3 if you were giving “natural count”) was enough of a clue that South had three hearts. Had West been patient and ducked Q, then South will have said goodbye to dummy. They can force the defence to lead clubs after taking A and exiting a third heart but 2 tricks in three suits and A would mean one down.

Giving count can be so helpful.

South could have made 2NT but rather strangely by attacking hearts before spades. They can play AQ in either order at tricks 4 and 5 and after West takes their high diamond, they must exit a club. Although East can duck the second round of spades, declarer will win that trick in dummy to cash the all-important J  for their 8^th trick.
That did not happen and West ought really to have been able to duck Q when the finesse was taken.
With West failing by 2 tricks in 3 at the other table, rather than losing 1 imp for your -120, correct defence would have seen 4 imps go to your side. Just another potential 5 imp swing lost. 

Another deal for our JIN Club members tomorrow. 

Richard Solomon

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