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End -play Delight!

Today’s deal provided a headache for most declarers with only 3 out of 14 managing to make 9 tricks in 3NT. Yet, the board was as tough for many of the North players as well.

Firstly, then, what would you lead as North after this natural sequence?

 

One thing you know is that your partner will have virtually no high cards. So, one’s lead should probably be as passive as possible with finding partner with Jxxx or Jxxxx being as much as one could expect on the positive side.

However, a passive lead seems a good idea if you can find one. Where Michael Ware was declarer as West, North did lead 9. A club was led 6 times and a high heart 4 times from the North seat. East was declarer at the other four tables, each receiving a lowish heart lead. The defence should then not have trouble in beating this contract as long as North inserted 9 at trick 1 if the declarer had played low from dummy, the West hand. These were the four hands:

 

The auction above needs explanation. East’s initial pass was 0-6 any or 15-20 hcp. West’s 1 showed 3-8 or 19+ hcp, confirmed as the latter as East’s 1  showed 0-6. 1 was the 19+ enquiry and 2 was 4-6 balanced with no major. So, the defence knew nothing else about Michael’s West hand other than that he held 19+ hcp.

Like most declarers, Michael attacked diamonds at trick 2, careful to preserve 2 as his entry to the East hand later to cash clubs, or so he hoped. 8 went to A and a second diamond to J, Q, K. While North knew where the missing honour cards were, Michael had no idea North was so strong.

North won and exited a second club but was soon back on lead as Michael exited a third diamond, 9. North had no good exit, least of all a club and tried A and a second spade, hoping Michael might hold a doubleton spade (KQ doubleton perhaps), though that exit gave Michael three tricks in each black suit, two diamonds and eventually a heart trick.

North’s other possible exit would be K which Michael would have ducked. Again, North had to present Michael with an extra trick, a second heart trick, if North had continued that suit.

If that had happened, these cards would have remained:

With Michael having won 5 of the first 7 tricks. J is cashed. When the carefully preserved 2 is led next, North has to part with 8. Now, a spade to K either produces J if North ducks or else North must win to play a club giving declarer the chance to guess the correct club position. North might have cashed 10 when in with K though if Michael had cashed his high clubs before playing diamonds, North would be back in that same end-played position

So, 3NT is “cold” from the West seat, though it needs a precise guess as to the lay-out of the North-South hands. We can also see that with East declarer and a heart lead, the contract cannot be made if North can play 9 at trick 1. The defence can take 2 tricks in each red suit and A or just one diamond but a club before the declarer can make 9 tricks.

Only 2 West declarers including Michael, both receiving club leads, and one East declarer (after a heart lead) were successful. The South and East players must have wondered what all the fuss was about!

Richard Solomon

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