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            Trust your Partner: not their Bidding!

The first half of the above statement is definitely true. It is great for partnership morale and it is usually good for your score as well! Even if the opponents’ bidding suggests otherwise, you just have to believe the person you have chosen to sit opposite you. At least, it is good for the post-mortem, even if you were to record a poor score. Yet, you usually will not!

Welcome to West, your “hot seat” for today.

 

It is you on lead…well, that is not the problem. You lead the K and might be a little encouraged by the weak hand you see in dummy.

After the customary thanks, South decides to duck the opening lead. Your partner contributes 2. Your system is “low encourage”. What now?

West reasoned that South must have some length in hearts for their 3NT bid and therefore exited with 4, ensuring at least one more heart trick, certainly two more if East gained the lead. Surely South had Jxx for their jump to 3NT?

A second later, West realised that what they had guessed was not the actual lay-out because on the second round of hearts, South contributed J! Look at the defensive disaster which followed.

 

South was still alive but needed something good to happen. Three top spades showed that there was no joy for South in that suit with West throwing a diamond on the third round. That was followed by the J covered by East who discarded their now useless spade winner (there was no entry to dummy) on the third round of that suit.

South was done…or so they thought. They gave West their club trick…but West could only cash two high hearts (that’s 3 in total along with a club winner) before handing South back the lead with a diamond…and a very relieved South now had three spade tricks, two red aces and four club winners (one club had to be thrown on the 10) for 9 rather fortunate tricks.

What went wrong for the defence? The answer is that East had played an encouraging heart at trick 1. Did West see that? Why? Encourage?  That would hardly be the case if South had 3 or 4 hearts to the jack. West did not believe that their partner could possibly have a 5-card heart suit. Granted that the bidding made it unlikely but if your partner had four hearts, it would not cost to exit with 10. Even if West could not bring themselves to exit with Q at trick 2, they could risk 10. Then, the defence would just have to score 4 heart tricks and a club. South’s jump to 3NT was not a good bid but West allowed them to get away with it. West not only lost the match-points but almost as importantly lost the post-mortem too.

Trust partner..your partner. It is usually a great idea.

What went wrong with the bidding? While we criticize the bidding, it is worth thinking about what South should have bid over 2. A “fourth suit forcing"artificial 2 would have been a good idea as without a heart hold, 3NT is no great contract.

However, as you can see, even with North’s heart hold,3NT should be defeated even if North is the declarer as long as East leads a heart. West would still need to be careful in preserving that 4 if the declarer ducks the 10 at trick 1 but with J in dummy, the correct defence should be easy for West.

Ironically, there are 3 North-South games which do make, 4, 5 and 5 . After 2 by South, North can rebid 3 showing a 5 card suit. Now, 3 or a diamond  bid from South would get the partnership to a making game:

                                            North                 South

                                           1                     2

                                           2                     2

                                           3                     3

                                           4                    Pass              

What South did right. While we do not think that South’s 3NT bid was correct, they did do something smart in the play of the hand. Had South taken the A at trick 1, West just could not go wrong as long as they cashed a high heart when they regained the lead. Ducking the opening lead gave West the opportunity to block the suit, an opportunity West accepted “with open arms”. Ducking was almost no cost and this time was a big but unlikely winner for South.

What West did right. It is time to be nice to West. They did do something good in the defence. Alas, it was too late to defeat the contract. Did you notice West discarded a diamond and not a club on the third round of spades? West realised that since South had bid clubs, that their hold in that suit might be important. It was... but only if West had preserved the vital 4 at trick 2.

Altogether,a very interesting board.

Richard Solomon

 

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