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Does partner know best?

This unusual deal occurred in the recent Seniors’ Zone 7 match between New Zealand and Australia. It provided a 3 imp swing to New Zealand though far more imps perhaps should have flowed the other way. Let’s put you in the South seat.

 

You open a Multi 2 which gets an unusual response from your partner. 3 is natural and to play and tends to suggest they are very short in your Weak 2 suit. East bids their major and this is raised to game.
You lead K and partner follows with 2 as you win the trick. What is your play to trick 2?

It is rather significant. Perhaps fearing that North’s diamond trick/tricks might get ruffed or knowing that North would be very short in spades, South disregarded North’s 2 signal. Since South was going to win the trick, assuming North had A, the club played by North (they had many) should be a signal to partner about the best continuation for trick 2. The low club was clearly a signal for a diamond, the lower of the 2 non-trump suits.

However, South decided to cash A which produced Q from North and 3 from East. A spade ruff followed (declarer playing low from dummy) but trick 3 was the last trick the defence took.

 

 

East could win the trump return in hand, ruff a club  in dummy, draw trumps, cross to K and discard their last club on the K, making 10 tricks. To beat this contract, South had to lead a diamond at trick 2 (9 asking for a spade return) with then Q to the ace and a second diamond ruff beating the contract. The defence can actually score 3 diamond ruffs if South leads a diamond at trick 1 and North is game enough to under-lead A in order to score the third ruff. However, the club lead is quite understandable and should still have produced a board-winning result.

That was because of South's 4 opening bid at the other table, declarer no doubt influenced by the vulnerability. East’s double ended the bidding and after Q lead, North did not put down the dummy of declarer’s dreams.

Declarer won with K, ruffed a diamond in dummy and a heart in hand. They tried to score a second club trick but West ruffed. The defence ended with three diamond and three trump tricks for down 3….+500 to Australia, a potential 11 imp gain had South followed their partner’s signal in defence to 4. Partner is sometimes right…and, of course, you do not lose the post-mortem!

Richard Solomon

 

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