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The Hot Seat.

That was the case of those players who sat North in one match of last Sunday’s Auckland Provincial Teams. Yesterday, we gave you the problem of what to open with 9 diamonds to the AJT and HA. The opening bid dictated the type of auction which followed.

Today’s deal is the board that followed with North having this time a much shorter suit, only 8 cards long! This time, North was 4^th rather than first to speak and the bidding had reached the 3 -level by the time they had a chance to bid. No worries in the bidding as a leap to game ended the auction at some tables.

 

 

3H was invitational. East leads K, then switches to the 6. You play 8 from dummy covered by West’s 9 and you ruff. You try Q won by East’s A and East plays A followed by a heart to West’s Q which you ruff.

You need the rest of the tricks. There’s a rather significant card missing, Q. Do you know which opponent holds it? Can you find the Q and make your contract?

One of the event winners, GeO Tislevoll, had this problem and showed he could make his contract despite coming to a rather depressing conclusion. With GeO as North, the play started as above.

From West’s play to that first round of clubs, GeO could surmise they held AQJ9 and they had already owned up to the Q. That’s 9 hcp and yet the 3 bid promised a little bit more…and the only “little bit” left with no spade honour is the Q. All well and good if West held Qx but not so good if West held Qxx. However, GeO showed he could make his contract even if that was the case. Over to GeO:

“I pictured West to have started with 94  Q96 Q43 AQJ95. Time to play out all bar one of my trumps to reach this four-card ending:

Yes, you are right. West has five cards while North and South have only four! This is because West hasn't yet discarded to the second last trump!

If West discards a diamond, you cash AK and ruff a club back to the North hand to enjoy the high J at trick 13. Alternatively, if West discards Q, declarer plays a diamond to dummy and calls for the T on which West has to play A. North ruffs and returns to dummy with A to enjoy the now high K at trick 13.” (a criss-cross squeeze)

 

"There was though a catch. It was possible that West had started with 6 clubs and only 2 diamonds, in which case the second scenario above would not work as West would still have A at trick 13.

The key is that on that second last trump, West discarded not Q but a low club, meaning West still had AQ… and therefore only 2 diamonds. So, despite the club being discarded, I played AK to drop the queen, with these being the four hands:

 

 

As stated, I could then ruff a club to return to my hand to enjoy J at trick 13.”

 

Maybe you worked out that West was very likely to hold Q and that you had to hope that the queen was singleton or doubleton. Good point counting if you did. GeO showed how he could still make his contract even if Q was protected by two little cards.

It required visualising West’s hand and which cards they would have left with the all-important discard at trick 8. Nice card-reading from one of our top players.

 
GeO

 

Something a little more straight-forward, though not exactly normal for tomorrow:

 

What’s your choice of opening bid? Be ready for there could be a big surprise in store next time round:

 

Richard Solomon

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