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Winners never give up.

Well, I hope that makes me a winner because I am very reluctant ever to concede! One thing that causes players to lose focus is the sight of a very strong dummy. It can be very intimidating, if you let it. When you see such a strong hand as the hand below hit the deck, you should not forget that the hand you cannot see might have a 9 as its highest card, on a good day! The fact that the undisclosed hand had made three bids does not mean anything! Be positive!

 

 

Dummy is “very good, indeed”.  26 hcp….and not only are they not in slam but North is not even declarer!

As West, you lead Q with the K being covered by your partner’s ace. Partner played  next 10 and then 6 to your ace …and then?

The most negative thing you could do would be to exit a trump, a zero per cent chance of scoring any more tricks. A diamond is no better. There is no chance your partner has no diamonds and one heart.

What you should be saying to yourself is that massive 26 count has already been reduced to a working 20 count: the black kings were not carrying full weight. What do you know about declarer’s hand? They have at least 5 spades and at least 4 hearts to bid the way they have. If they have 5 hearts, then your chances of a fourth trick are also almost zero. So, you have to hope that South has only 9 cards in the majors.

Have you noticed that you, too, have four trumps? If you force declarer to ruff in dummy, they might just have difficulty in drawing your last trump and then running the diamonds….great difficulty.

So, which black suit should you play at trick 4? If declarer has three small clubs, then it should be the J and if declarer does not have the Q, then it is a spade. As it happened, either play works:

 

South had a stronger hand than they might…a 10! The play of either black suit forces the ruff and is followed by three rounds of trumps and, perforce, high diamonds. All it required was for your partner to hold at least two diamonds including 10: they obliged!

In fact, after you have ruffed the fourth round of diamonds, there will still be a spade trick to come for your partner….down two. How that almighty hand had fallen!

What of South's second bid?

Should South have passed 3NT? There is a real advantage in having the strong hand hidden, almost to the extent of being in the wrong contract played by the right hand!

What would you lead from the East hand against 3NT, knowing that dummy will produce a 5 card spade suit (yes, it should be 5 as if North has 6 diamonds and a 4 card major, it is normal for them to bid the major after South’s forced 3NT bid after North's  3 with, say, just a 4 card spade suit …a poor but inevitable sequence)?

A small spade, even Q would be wonderful for the defence as long as West wins to play Q. However, it would not be the crime of the century for East to start with a club, say the 10. Meanwhile, on the actual hand, the 4 bid did not guarantee to find a fit. If North was 2-2 in the majors, a trump suit of Kx opposite107432 would not be very enjoyable for South.

The fact that game could not be made, albeit with a touch of bad luck for the declarer (A offside and trumps 4-1), with a 4-4 fit is another piece of evidence to suggest that passing 3 NT might have been a better option.

Big hand : no choices

So, all North got to do was to open their game force, bid their long suit once and then get the coffees! Meanwhile, hopefully, West was not distracted by such power in dummy and focussed on beating the game contract.

A little wishing can bring in surprisingly good results.

 

 

A 2-part question for tomorrow. You are playing an Acol based system and are not playing a Jacoby 2NT (If you are not sure what that is, do not worry as you are not playing it!).

1. Do you agree with 2NT? If not, what do you prefer?
2. What, if anything, do you bid now?

See you tomorrow.

Richard Solomon 

 

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