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-850 or + 200?

One of those will be the result of our action to double 5H in the following auction. Do you remember the problem?

 

We led A and saw East ruff that… bad news! Next came the K from East which we won with our ace and our partner discarded a low not encouraging club. Which card did you lead to trick 3?

What we need

We need two more tricks to defeat this contract. If partner held the A, we would still need another trick. It is possible (though they did not encourage a club switch) but that would already give our partner A  QJ and what with their heart void, they may have little more to bid 3.

So, we had better look to the diamond suit. Either AQ or A followed by a diamond ruff will be good enough. Our diamond it is… and as long as partner can win their ace and return the suit, we will beat the contract:

 

That is what happened and we recorded +200. Meanwhile, there are 3 club losers in 5.

Interestingly, an alternative defence to 5 is to lead your singleton. The idea is if your partner does not hold the A, you can win with your A and either lead to ace in partner's hand or underlead your AK to partner’s Q to secure your ruff. What if declarer had singleton Q? Then, that is bad luck! Bother!

So, our decision to pass or double 5 proved correct. “The 5 level” did “belong to the opponents". Many such decisions are hard to get right.

A Relook at the Bidding

We called Friday’s article “Valuing Voids” and we can look at the North and East hands and see the positive way that took place.  5 points for a void once we have a trump fit. That gives North 12 points, almost enough or maybe enough to raise directly to 4 over 1. East’s void gave them a 19 count and their 5 bid was both very wise and entirely necessary as 4 was unbeatable.

Such deals are both really exciting and yet can be really frustrating at times. Don’t worry, as you will start to make the right decisions more of the time with experience.

Richard Solomon

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