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Or is it?

With nothing else to think about, think about it!

That could certainly apply to today’s deal. You are there, presumably like every other pair, in your game contract. Without any further ado, plan your play. Well, you should always have a plan, shouldn’t you?

 

West leads the 6. East follows suit with 9. What now? Easy?

An offbeat 2NT opening would likely land South in 3NT via North showing their heart suit. If South avoided a club lead (the likely lead from the West hand), they would be in the same position as those in 4. Even if North initially bid 1NT (for those playing 4-card majors), South should insist on their suit being trumps...or North would show spade support. 
So, it looks like you can draw trumps and then either try A and a second heart or even a sneaky 6 initially. Maybe you can make an overtrick. Several players made an under-trick!

Starting by drawing trumps seems obvious. There is absolutely no reason not to. However, by the time the first round of trumps had been played, several declarers had found one of two ways to lose four tricks, maybe even both ways.

With no more than three losers in the side suits, the only way to fail in this contract is to lose a trump trick. Surely not a 4-0 break? Why not? They are not that uncommon, around 10%, and that is not a percentage to ignore.

Say West has all four. There is nothing you can do. Even if you threatened a first- round finesse by leading 9 from hand, West would simply play 10 to ensure you lost a trick in the suit. That’s about 5% bad luck.

What about if East had all four spades? You would know soon enough when you laid down a high spade though if you started with A from hand (which on other days would be correct, like when you had 8 trumps and were missing J), once again today East would cover the small spade from dummy with 10 meaning you had a spade loser.

To pick up the spade suit for no losers, you must start off with a small spade to the Q in dummy.

 

As long as you do that, East has to answer. They can play 10 on the second round of the suit but when you return to dummy, they will have no answer and no trump trick.

There’s just one little issue. With which diamond did you win trick 1? As declarer, I hope you won the trick in the South hand, or else you would have a rather hard job getting to dummy a second time.

So: did you win trick 1 with either the A or K in your hand?

     Did you play a small spade towards the queen at trick 2?

If you did not do both of the above, your “easy” 4 contract would not make. There were a number of declarers who did not record a positive score.

Tomorrow being Friday, it’s a deal for our JIN Club members. Also, tomorrow, in the evening (8pm) is Round 2 of the Trans -Tasman Challenge. The kibitzing link below has a half hour delay. See our top players take on the Aussies in another 16 board match.

The link is 2023 Trans-Tasman Challenge (aj92.com.au)

and then press "Click here to kibitz." 

Richard Solomon

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