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            The Sadistic Problem Setter.

There is somewhere someone who punishes non- vigilant bridge players. That person teases us. They spend hours on end setting up hand lay-outs to catch the lazy, those who do not think a board through or those who just do not see the danger. (I am not, of course, referring to you though there are bridge players who fall into all three categories..lots of them!)

I am not sure but it could be Pat Carter, maybe Barry Jones...certainly someone with a devious mind!

Do not believe that story put out that your deals are dealt randomly by a computer program. It’s not true: it’s just I am still to find who this sadistic person is!

They set declarers a little test with the deal we gave you yesterday…and rumour has it that they may be at work again for tomorrow. How did you play this 3NT?

 

The bidding was all natural up until partner’s 3 stopper ask. You have a good one, albeit only one but 3NT it is.

After the opening lead of the K, there is already one unhappy player, West, who will bemoaning why whenever they lead the K from presumably a five-card suit, dummy tracks with the jack and declarer the ace!

You do not want to be the one moaning at the end of the hand, do you? So, plan the play. Oh, we do assume that you win the first trick with A. East plays 10. If you were to play clubs, both defenders follow with low clubs on the first round..and East on the second.

So, those were the ground- rules. A relaxed declarer won the opening lead and set off to enjoy a nice-looking club suit. Everyone followed to the king and East followed to the second round. You know the feeling: play the ace and West discards or finesse and you lose to the queen. There is no third option!

So, our declarer finessed with the predicted result.

West continued with a low 9, still bemoaning their bad luck at trick one. East discarded a nebulous diamond. So, dummy’s jack scored and declarer suddenly had a realisation that there was no easy way back to their hand to enjoy the rest of the clubs. It was time to pray for miracles:

that East held the A..and presumably the K as well. There was a half miracle…but half was not good enough! West took the A and reeled off three spade tricks to beat the contract. A losing heart finesse rubbed more salt into the wound.

 

Our problem setter had actually not been that “sadistic” at all as there were several lines, just about all of which would lead to success. Our declarer, guilty of a very low level of planning at trick 1, sought out just about the only one which would fail.

In a sense, winning trick one and attacking clubs was fine, as long as declarer did not take a second-round finesse. What our declarer did not realise was that they had escaped the lead that might have threated the contract, a diamond lead. The K was a wonderful lead for South, as long as they did not let West in twice more. By taking the club finesse, they did just that, and of course found getting back to enjoying the club suit would be a little hard.

Had the Q not appeared (South had to play A), the opponents could not communicate in clubs, no matter who held the Q and all would be well as long as South did not play a third round of clubs. They had then to turn their attention to the heart suit.

There was one important point that our South did not consider. The spade overcall meant that it was almost impossible for the opponents to communicate in spades. Indeed, if West had five, which was almost certain, then East had only one and even had West only KQxx, East could not play back a spade once the suit was set up. Therefore, losing a trick to East was quite safe. The danger hand was West.

Indeed, why bother with the club suit? It is a “black” herring! Certainly, once the queen appeared, you were on your way to an overtrick…but the suit to attack at trick 2 was the heart suit…four hearts (finesses always lose…our setter sees to that!), two clubs (the queen never  appears!), one spade and two diamonds add up to 9 without West being able to do any damage.

Lead J which holds and then play 10. Even if East had four hearts and ducked again, the defence would find it just about impossible to deny you 9 tricks. However, on the above lay-out, East wins. The best the defence can do is switch to a diamond with West taking their Q and moving on to the next board.

Yet, another way of making your contract would be to duck the K at trick 1, as you know East has no more. West might realise that, too, but they cannot harm the declarer.

So, most routes should have led to one overtrick. It seems a shame to take the “problem setter’s trap” and record two undertricks instead.

Another look at what this mysterious person is up to tomorrow:

1 promises 2+ clubs. The opponents are playing 5 card majors, 15-17 1NT opening.

A good auction in every way. You were maximum for your 1 call. Partner’s 2 bid was natural, showing a strong hand, 16, probably even 17+, leaving you an easy 3NT bid. So, not only is it a good auction but you are the declarer! That’s what you pay your table money for (oh, a small point but this BBO bridge is free!) rather than making the coffees!

So, West leads the J…off you go. Oops, an unfortunate choice of phrase. Please make sure you do not “go off”! Tomorrow reveals all.

Richard Solomon

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