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Play Card: Have Meaning

You have opened the bidding with a pre-empt and partner leads the ace of your suit. Dummy has queen and another. Your partner knows how many cards he holds in the suit. He can do a quick count as to how many cards declarer has in the suit. Which card do you play and why?

The Bidding

Firstly, let’s go way back, a full two to three minutes ago, to the bidding. What’s your choice of bid at the crucial stage of the auction? You are North with:

842

 AK2

K

AQ7642

and take part in the following:

N/S Vul. Pairs.

West                  North                 East           South

                                                                             3

4                        5                   5               Pass

Pass                    ?

You bid 5 to make but what about the 6 level? Looking at your spade suit, your partner figures to be very short in that suit and (yes, you noticed the unfavourable vulnerability for your side) opened 3 without either of the top 2 hearts. If he noticed the vulnerability, he ought to have more than the QJ and say the K. Really, 6 would not be a bad shot. It would be interesting to see if the opponents would let you play there.

The Play

At the table, North decided to take the money and defend. So double was North’s choice and with everyone passing, North made the obvious lead of a high heart. This is what North saw:

 

 

What would you play at trick 2 if your partner played 4…or if partner played J to trick one? West follows to the first trick with 8.

At the table, North continued with a second high heart which was ruffed by declarer who played a trump to dummy, cashed a second trump and then led a low diamond. What happened next was not pretty but did not immediately cost the defence:

 

 

South went up with their A and crushed partner’s king. South recovered the trick for the defence by playing another diamond which North ruffed. However, North had to play A or else concede a ruff and discard. West got out for down 2, -300 when correct defence would have netted +800, a top score for North-South as almost no North-Souths did bid the heart slam which proved to be an easy make. (South’s extra value was in their shape.)

A miserable +300 for North-South…but it did not have to be. (note that had South played low on the first diamond, the defence scores +500 only if North exits with their trump.)  Let’s go back to trick 1. Maybe South did play the J, a very unnecessarily high card. Why? If you play natural signals (high encourage), it could confirm you held the king…but an 8 or 9 would do the same job.  Alternatively, it might be to let their partner know that if they wanted to switch, then a switch to the higher of the unplayed non-trump suits, diamonds, was fine. If North realised that, then laying down the K at trick 2 would be easy and safe.

Best Defence

To score a maximum 800 would take a little good fortune for North. North knows either South or West has a singleton or indeed void club. If it is South, the big question is whether South has a spade, meaning that West had jumped to 4 on a 6 card suit. If North chances it, then South will ruff, cash A and give North a ruff. That’s the first 6 tricks for the defence.

If South knew the K was singleton, they could overtake and give their partner 2 ruffs for the same +800. The problem is, they do not.

Had South stayed low on the A (high heart from North at trick 2), West would either have to play 9 on the first or second round of diamonds to avoid three diamond losers. Would South be brave enough to play low on the second round played from dummy?

Co-operative Defence

As you can see, South could have guided their partner to the best defence. There was no point in South giving count in hearts or even playing an encouraging or discouraging card. (The raise to 5 probably indicated at least three cards in hearts.)  It was a time for suit preference. Sometimes, a high card will ask for a higher suit and a low card for a lower one. On other occasions, while the unnecessarily high card retains the same meaning, a low one may, especially playing reverse signals, be encouragement for the suit played.

We never said defence was easy. If one defender can help their partner with a signal, it does make it just a little easier. Next time, North might hold Kx and without that signal, North would never know that leading their king would be not only safe but the best move for the defence.

A final word of warning. Only throw that high card if it is safe to do so. The J was never going to win a trick. Therefore, this time, it was quite safe.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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