Vil Gravis on 18THU
This one is going to be too difficult for most new players but it is such a wonderful example of both defence and declarer play that I just HAD to show it to you. It came from a Thursday session in Week 18. I'll put you in the South seat as usual.
Dlr W ALL Vul
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 4 | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Partner starts with the A
then follows with the 3. This is the set up:
Dummy:
| J7632 |
 J |
| J9 |
 T9654 |
You:
| A |
| Q9852 |
| QT8542 |
| 2 |
You cover dummy's J with your Q and declarer wins the K. Next, declarer plays A, K, and ruffs a heart before
leading a trump. You win the A. How do you continue?
You should first ask some questions:
- Why did partner lead the ace of diamonds?
- Why did partner continue with a second diamond?
- Why did declarer ruff a heart in dummy before leading a trump from dummy?
Think about your answers to these questions before I show you the full deal.
Dealer W ALL Vul
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The answers SHOULD be apparent to any keen student: partner is not in the habit of leading aces for no purpose whatsoever (unlike many I have seen in the lower grades). Given that partner had a purpose in leading an ace, surely the ace had to be doubleton after partner followed with the three.
Why did partner lead a doubleton ace? Surely, hoping for a ruff.
Next, why did partner continue with another diamond? Still hoping for a ruff? I would think so.
And lastly, why did declarer play A, K followed by a heart ruff in dummy? Surely, if declarer had both the king and queen of trumps, he would have led trumps immediately. Why, with so many trumps between declarer and dummy, would declarer want to lead trumps from dummy first?
The answer surely must be: declarer does NOT have both king and queen but most likely the king ONLY. Therefore, when you win the ace of trumps, your next move should be clear: lead another diamond and partner will be able to ruff higher than dummy,with the queen!
The unfortunate thing about this deal was that even those NS pairs who managed to find this defence were not able to defeat 4S, because when North was able to ruff with the queen of trumps, he had no escape and had to either lead a club round to declarer's AQ or another heart, allowing declarer to ruff in dummy while discarding the queen of clubs from hand. That is the value of having plenty of trumps; you can eliminate side suits while still keeping lots of trumps in each hand. There will be deals where you will need to make the play in hearts not just to get to dummy but to eliminate exits for the defence when they are left on lead.
Now, for a note on the declarer play. A number of the declarers did manage to fail in 4S. They probably did not think of leading trumps from dummy, but there is every reason to do so. With ten trumps missing the ace and queen, if you are FORCED to lead from hand, you simply have to guess: if there is a singleton ace or queen with either defender, which is it? If it is the ace, lead a low one. If it is the queen, plonk down the king and it will swallow up the queen while the other defender wins the ace. But why lead from HAND when you can lead from dummy, which will force the next hand to play before you have to make your 'guess' which is no longer a guess. If the next hand jumps up with the ace ... problem solved. If the next hand follows with the queen, problem also solved.
How else could the declarers have gone wrong? They might have played A and then immediately ruffed a low one in order to get to dummy, just in case there is an over-ruff on the third heart. But the result of that is that when North over-ruffs dummy by ruffing with the queen, North can now EXIT with a heart and declarer will then lose a club trick. I have, in previous articles, suggested that it is sensible to keep your high cards if you can ruff your lower ones first, but not so in this case. There should be a purpose for everything, and eliminating side suits when you have heaps of trumps is always a good idea for when you want to reduce the possibilities for the defenders. This is a good case in point. There is after all, only a very small chance of any over ruffs, and even if either defender CAN ruff, the chances are that it will be with either a singleton ace or queen, or the over ruff will need to be with the ace.
I hope this was not too difficult for the lay reader to understand because it is a wonderful example of good defence and good declarer play.
