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Good news for the declarers unless you find the right defence.

Spoiling a Dream.

Both pairs could have been defending today’s hand and had the opportunity to defeat the game though in most cases did not. Let’s see how you would go with this one:

 

You lead 3 and, no surprise number 1, in that declarer inserts J from dummy forcing your partner’s ace. South returns 4, with declarer following suit with 7 and 9. Unless declarer is false-carding, it looks like South has the missing 2 and thus a 5-card suit.

Trick 3 goes 5,2, and no surprise number 2, ace felling your king. Next, West produces 8. Do you win this trick and if so, with which card do you continue?

On a different day, we might debate whether North should double 3 for take-out. They have the right-shape to do so and have an opening hand. It appears that since 3 or 4 was a common contract that most Norths stayed silent, to their cost. On some days, doubling could be a disaster but accepting that this aggressive action could back-fire, it does seem to be the best way of fighting the pre-empt.

As you can see, our North passed and was then faced with a tricky problem when the diamond came. Take the ace…and then? Although it was possible West had J8x, I would think that West, with that holding, with 7 hearts, 2 spades and therefore just one club, would play a club towards dummy hoping that you, North, held A.

So, if that was not the lay-out, then it must surely be best to win A and continue with Q:

 

Winning and switching to a low club would be fine had South held J as well as the A but would have given West a guess they could get right when the J was with West. A successful guess allows 4 to make. One club disappears on the K. South could have helped their partner by playing J (surely showing 10)  under the ace. That makes the diamond continuation even clearer.

West should play Q just in case West held J8. With the diamond continuation, West just has to lose two club tricks to be down 1.

However, the defence was not in good shape when West ducked the 8 and the king won. Next came a diamond ruff, a heart to dummy and a second diamond ruff. Now the 4 and it did not matter what North did as if they played low, declarer could insert 9 losing to 10. South could take A before conceding..10 tricks. Had North played Q, West covers in dummy and still just loses 2 club tricks and a spade.

So, although 4 can be beaten and although that is also true of 4 (as South will surely jump to game after the double), -100 would have been a rather good North-South score as compared with many making 10 tricks in hearts even only in part-score. Yet, East had to be alert to defeat 4.

Against 4 by South, West leads A and East is not really sure which minor switch works better for the defence. The defence is unlikely survive a low club switch as with one trick in each of the other suits, they need a club trick as well.

What, though, if West switches to their singleton diamond? Declarer can win to play ace and another spade. East must realise where A is (surely with AQ and A West would have opened 1?) and must therefore find the slightly unusual defence of K and another diamond to be sure of beating 4. South can discard one club but still has a club loser.

So, both West or South could be in ambitious game contracts which in theory should fail. As you can guess, the majority of declarers scored 10 tricks bringing home their contracts with suit lay-outs they could “dream” about, especially when playing 4.

Which minor?

 

A couple of questions for you here. Firstly, assuming you have the choice of opening this hand 1 or 2, the latter showing spades and a minor less than an opening hand, which would you choose…or would you prefer not to open the hand at all even if 2 was not an option?

Then, if you open 1, the above is the auction you would hear. What would be your second bid? Pairs is the game.

Richard Solomon

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