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                                                       Right side: Wrong side

Some contracts are definitely easier played from one seat rather than the other. Take Board 18 from play at Akarana this week.

 

 

At some tables, the bidding did not take too long. For instance:

West          North         East            South

                                      Pass            Pass

3NT ¹           4             All Pass

¹ Gambling style, though in 3^rd seat, the concept of no outside aces/kings is relaxed.

North, Jerry Chen, made a very practical choice of calling his major. With no clubs, East had no desire to bid on and when East knew of partner’s minor but could not lead one, Jerry had a very easy road on the 9 lead. He inserted the jack, and ruffed out the king. A heart to the queen saw his clubs disappear on high spades. He then played a couple of high diamonds and ruffed the third diamond with dummy’s 9 and drew trumps claiming all 13 tricks.

 

How Vivien Cornell would have liked that sequence of cards. The bidding at her table was somewhat different:

West          North         East            South

                                      2¹             Pass

4              4NT ²         Pass            5

X ³                     5⁴          Pass            5

All Pass

¹ Weak 2 in spades

² 2 Suited take-out

³ “Had Christmas come to West early?”

⁴  “No!”

Vivien (South) received the high club lead and continuation, East throwing spades. She had to ruff high when a third high club was played and had to take stock. West was marked with seven clubs and presumably three spades. Expect a bad heart break.

If Vivien played two high diamonds and ruffed another diamond with her 9, she would finish a trick short (trump loser). Ruffing a black card to the North hand and run diamonds until East ruffs …and then over-ruffing sounds fine but will leave the dummy (North) with one less trump than East… no good. 

To succeed, you must take a first round heart finesse (heart to the 9) and then play the diamonds, ruffing the third round with 4.  Then discard a diamond on the A and then take the ruffing spade finesse. If West covers, ruff low and play a high diamond. These cards remain:

 

 

Declarer is in the North hand and plays a high diamond. If East discards their spade, declarer throws a black card and makes the last three tricks on a high level cross-ruff. If East ruffs, South overruffs, plays J throwing the remaining diamond and has two high trumps in dummy for the last two tricks.

That all is just a shade harder than receiving a small spade lead at trick one from the East hand! Don’t let DealMaster Pro tell you this contract is cold for 11 tricks from the South seat. “Cold” it may be but you would have had a really warm glow inside if you had made your 5 game.

Richard Solomon  

 

 

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