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Where is the queen?

Maybe you should have taken the money assuming there was much to be had (there was not!) but you hope that “the 5 level does not belong to the opposition” this time. You are in 5 with an 8- card trump fit and with two certain minor suit losers. The spade suit is not solid, either. Your partner needed either one more or one less spade!

“Thank you, partner. Lovely dummy..” through gritted teeth!

 

Rightly or wrongly, you bid on after West’s annoying jump bid. Such double jumps should be banned…unless it is our side making them!

2 was a transfer and 5 a second suit.

West started off with A which felled East’s Q and on West’s K, East threw a nebulous 4 (with the 3 and 2 missing, this might be asking for a club switch (low encourage) or might not! You ruff and try a couple rounds of trumps with West throwing a diamond on the second round.

Whether spades were trumps or a side-suit, you had to avoid losing a trick to the Q or else your contract will fail.

The 4-1 trump break has not helped matters. You know West is going to be short in one major but will they be short in both? This does challenge the “vacant spaces” theory which says you should finesse the partner of the pre-emptor for missing honours in such a situation. West is known to have 8 diamonds and 1 heart. There is no certainty as to the split of the black suits and no time to explore by playing a club since were East to have both the A and the Q or you misguessed, you would be down before you turned your attention to spades.

It does seem unlikely that West has three spades. So, start with K and West contributes 4: no help there. A second small spade followed from East and it was the moment of truth:

 

The “theory” worked again though advocates would be less happy about promoting it after the pre-emptor had already shown up with one singleton.

After finessing, South was able to draw trumps and came to 6 spade tricks, 4 trumps and a diamond ruff in their own hand for a nervy 11 tricks. Meanwhile, successful club play would have seen West just one down in 5x.

Another recent hand which presented similar problems for the declarer. South really needed to believe that with such aggressive bidding from West that they had extreme shape.

 

After bidding 2 (hearts and a minor, Michaels style) and with no encouragement from their partner, West continued bidding to the 5 level. They should have been doubled (at least three down) but North pressed on to 5 leaving their partner with a bit of a problem..

After the 10 lead, South won IN HAND and played a low spade to dummy with West showing out on the first round. That meant two spade losers. Declarer had three spade tricks and AKA in clubs and hearts and therefore needed five diamond tricks. It would be harder if West had done less bidding but the lurch to 5 suggested hardly any diamonds with two finesses being needed from the North as these were the four hands:

 

Declarer would have had to play very carefully retaining enough entries to the North hand to take two finesses and then return there to play dummy's two high diamonds. This required  playing 10 on the first round of trumps to create enough entries.

Maybe the 5 level does belong to the opposition..but “Vacant Spaces” are alive, well and worth remembering!

All About an Overtrick

 

You are playing Pairs where over and under-tricks do count. Your partner leads J. Using your signalling method, what card do you play to trick 1 (South wins with A) and to tricks 2 and 3 when South’s J scores and then West’s A? North-South are playing 5-card majors.

Richard Solomon

 

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