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What a card!

One useful point.

Actually, there was a little more to the dummy hand than the solitary high card point which the dummy hand held. The lack of high cards in dummy rather balanced out declarer’s own holding as they held 26 hcps! Yet, even with such a powerful hand, South could not count to 9 tricks. The problem was in turning the “ifs and maybes” into the extra trick South needed to make their no-trump game.

 

There are different ways in showing a flat 26 count. All routes should here lead to 3NT. In the above sequence, 2NT showed 24+ and was forcing to game. As much as North would have loved to pass 2NT, they did their duty. 3 checked for a major fit. 3 showed at least one 4-card major with 3 promising 4 hearts.

West led K and dummy was duly thanked! You ducked the opening lead and West continued Q, East playing firstly 4 and then 5 showing an even number of diamonds.

You win the second round, trusting that the suit will break 4-2 one way round. You have 5 certain tricks in the majors, A and 2 club tricks. That adds up to 8. There are plenty of chances for a 9^th trick. What about finding a short J or a 3-3 break?

So, at trick 3, you lay down A. There’s no 3-3 break as West discards a club! Well, what’s your plan now?

One approach is to play Q at trick 4. If East holds K, they will certainly know your intentions of wanting to use J as an entry to dummy to take that spade finesse. West should be suspicious of that play too. Is there anything you should do before playing Q? These were the 4 hands:

 

If West took the Q with their K and cashed two diamond tricks, you are home as you discard 3 on the fourth round of diamonds and can get to dummy via the J (“great holding, partner”) to take that marked spade finesse.

However, West should allow Q to hold the trick. While you could have done this before you played Q, now is the time to cash those top heart tricks and exit with a heart. Maybe even cash A before you do so as holding 6 spades and at least 2 diamonds, East must be getting a little short of club cards. East will discard a spade.

Your second exit card after Q will now be the 3 and East will win and either put you into dummy with a heart or else (and better for the defence) play a spade themselves.

With no spades and no more than 4 diamonds, West could have 6 clubs and QJx or even 4 cards in both red suits. Cashing A then would be fatal though the contract was unlikely then to be made.

 East would always have a safe exit in clubs if they held Qxx and more than two clubs. Your best chance seems to be in end-playing East assuming West ducks Q…and when Q falls on second round of hearts, that points to East holding J, except where West is fooling you from QJx. West cannot be end-played after ducking Q as they can always exit with K squashing dummy’s J.

An alternative end-play is play AK at tricks 3 and 4 and then exit with 10. West will be down to just clubs very quickly and be forced to lead away from K. 

So, the contract can always be made, much more easily if West wins that Q but otherwise by end-playing the hand which had twice as many high-card points as did dummy! Roughly half of the declarers in 3NT recorded a plus score. Don't under-estimate the worth of a jack, sometimes!

Richard Solomon

 

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