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It can be just a little annoying when you have 9 tricks to take in your 3NT contract but you cannot manage to take all of them..and your contract fails.  

 

South might have used 2 4^th suit forcing had this bid been only a 1-round rather than a game force. So, they chose 2NT instead. Either way, 3NT would be the end result. West leads 8 and you duck this to East’s K. East returns a low heart at trick 2.

A second spade would have given you a comfortable 9 tricks but East was not that kind in removing an entry to dummy. 

It does not seem too hard in terms of tricks. Even if you lost a trick to the Q, you would have at least two spade tricks, three hearts and five diamond tricks. Yet, our declarer failed to make 9 tricks, let alone 10, by making one small error.

At trick 3 came a diamond to the king and a second diamond. Naturally, the finesse failed. East produced K and then a second club to West’s ace. No worries seemingly for South except that West then played a second round of spades (4). Ouch, too late South realised that they were in danger of losing contact with all those diamond tricks in dummy.

In order to reach them, South had to play Q, crushing their own jack at the same time. The defence had already taken 4 tricks (K, Q, AK) and after diamonds were played, South had to play Q9. Unfortunately, there was only one more winner in that suit as these were the four hands:

 

East’s 10 became the fifth trick for the defence. That was particularly good defence by West who realised that for their 2NT bid, South had to have a hold in clubs, the unbid suit. Therefore, the only hope for the defence was a second spade trick..and that materialised.

However, South should never had been in that position had they anticipated the communication issues. The simplest approach would have been to cash one high heart when in with K discarding that potential spade loser. No cost as they still held Q.

Alternatively, they could have at trick 3, played a diamond to the 9 in their own hand. Now, the defence could not cut off two routes to dummy in the one trick. Had West won and played a spade, South could win J in hand, cash KQ discarding dummy’s clubs and overtake K with A to enjoy the rest of the diamonds.

 

Hopefully yours were not!

Two ways of securing your contract which was only really in danger if communications were cut. Hopefully, yours were not.

Two Bites?

 

  

 

 

 

1 is at least 3 clubs and you are playing an opening 1NT as 15-17. What action would you take as South?

If you elect to pass, what would you do when opener doubles 4? Teams. 

Richard Solomon

 

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