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The Route to a Making Game.

On a different day, we might be debating the merits of opening the North hand below 1H. Such a good suit and just about the only suit you would not want your partner to lead were your side to end up as defending! Yet, open you did and nothing disastrous happened in the bidding. Not just that but any misgivings you might have about your trump suit were very much allayed by the sight of dummy. Your problem now is to make 10 tricks. 11 would be nice, too, as you are playing Pairs though perhaps the overtrick for now is of secondary importance.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if East led a club but they chose a rather nondescript unhelpful 8. We can tell you that East has the A and that each defender has two hearts. So, what’s the plan?

It looks like you have a certain loser in both major suits and an almost certain loser in diamonds. We cannot afford any more than that.

Let’s look at what happened at three tables. At all three tables, declarer won A and led a high heart. East took their ace and continued a second spade. Then, their routes diverged.

Table 1 Declarer won K and discarded a club before playing a high trump with both defenders following. North decided to play on clubs and led low to their J. No joy as they lost to Q. These were the four hands:

 

East exited a third spade with declarer ruffing to play a diamond to the ace and a second round of clubs. Surely West would hold A..but no as East won beating North’s K with their ace to play yet another spade. After losing A and two clubs, North could not avoid a diamond loser and was one down, bemoaning their bad luck.

Table 2  Here, North seemed more aware of the bidding which almost certainly placed A and likely Q with East. They hoped therefore they could force or encourage East to lead a club. If not, they would delay playing clubs until they absolutely had to. They ruffed the second spade in their own hand, played a second round of trumps and then played K discarding a club and then ruffed dummy’s remaining spade. Next came a diamond to the ace, a second diamond to the king and a third round of diamonds.

To their surprise and horror, West won this trick and had no difficulty in switching to a club….and yet again, North had failed to make their contract, though they had taken a much better line.

Table 3 North took a similar route as at Table 2 in ruffing two spades, drawing trumps and cashing K. However, after playing a diamond to the ace, they played a second diamond playing 7 when West contributed 4. If West had held 9, this would have forced a diamond honour. Had West say honour doubleton, declarer would have taken their honour  with their king and exited a diamond. East could win one diamond trick and exit a high diamond, though declarer would still be able to play clubs as a last resort. 

On the actual lay-out, East could continue a third round of diamonds which gave North a discard for one of South’s two clubs. Making 10 tricks.

Maybe our second declarer was unlucky in that East’s double had indicated where the Q was likely to be. However, were the Q with East, a watchful East might throw Q under K playing their partner to hold J.

What was clear was that our first declarer was not that unlucky. Oh, and had North passed initially and had East then passed as well, South may have opened a weak 1NT. North would transfer and South would be declarer in the likely 4 contract. Now, although Q lead seems a little more attractive than a club, were West to find an initial club, correct defence would then beat the 4 game. Is that an argument for opening 1 on that powerful North suit?

Richard Solomon

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