More from 26WED
Wednesday Play 10
You will have seen this deal reviewed in a previous article but I want to revisit it because it is particularly significant from the point of view of declarer play.
Board 1 Dealer N Nil Vul
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K43
AKQ9
K52
A92The bidding should be fairly straightforward. 1H from North, 1S from South, 3NT from North. As you might expect, the opening lead from East is the seven of clubs, 'fourth highest of longest and strongest', East having no real reason to do anything else. When West produces the queen, declarer should know that East has the other missing clubs above the seven. How? Because the Rule of 11 says: subtract the value of the card led from 11 and that is how many cards above the seven the other three hands hold. 11 minus 7 = 4. Dummy has one of those four cards, West had one (the queen) and declarer has two.
Not that it matters much this time, declarer cannot afford to win the first trick, because then East will be able to take at least three club tricks when either defender wins a trick. Declarer can see that the defenders will certainly win a trick soon enough, because after four heart tricks, declarer will have to try and find more tricks elsewhere. There are only two diamond tricks available, so the only other option is the spade suit.
Declarer should count the possible winning tricks: there are four certain heart tricks, two certain diamond tricks, one club trick, the ace, which will leave declarer two short. One trick can be set up in spades easily enough, but where can a second trick come from? There are possibilities ONLY in the spade suit, but declarer must follow the proper methods of playing that suit.
Given that declarer realises that he must play on spades sooner or later, he should also plan the play out rather than simply cash up the four top hearts. If declarer can see that whatever happens, there will be either three or four club losers, then he will also think ahead about any possibility of developing MORE than just one spade trick, and can but hope that East is NOT the one with the ace of spades. So, after ducking the clubs twice and winning the third round, declarer might as well play on spades, and sooner rather than later. Why?
Because there is only one proper way to play the spades, and that is to lead TOWARDS the 'isolated' king and keep the possibility of leading back towards the Q10, which provides another finesse position. That will mean entering dummy with a heart but NOT using up all possible entries and communication between the hands.
Too many of us fail to realise that it is not much use cashing up the tricks and conceding one down, and that down one some other way, while trying to make your contract, will come to the same thing.
So, a heart to dummy and then a low spade is led from dummy, hoping that WEST has the ace. Declarer goes up with the king when West plays low, and when the king holds, declarer KNOWS that East does not have the ace. Now, there is one more chance for declarer, with the earlier-mentioned finesse position in the spade suit. Declarer leads a second spade, this time towards the Q10 and, knowing for sure that West has the ace, puts in the TEN and when this finesse works the contract is made. I hope the reader can see why West must have the ace of spades, and why it would be silly to play low to the QUEEN after winning the king. That, incidentally, is why the “Deep Finesse” analysis tells you that declarer can if fact make FOUR. If declarer did NOT have the ten of spades in dummy, he would still have had a small chance of scoring the queen, and that is by playing West for a DOUBLETON ace of spades. That is a simple enough play buy too many less advanced players won't see that leading towards the king and then DUCKING on the way back will bring out a doubleton ace. When there is certainty as to the whereabouts of the ace, and NO OTHER OPTION, there is nothing to lose is there? But to do that in the situation that we have here would be quite naive because by ducking, declarer just might duck and allow EAST to win the second spade trick, and the whole object of the exercise is to keep East OUT! That, thanks to the TEN in dummy, declarer can do safely enough.
As you can see, our friend, Deep Finesse, will play towards the king and duck on the way back, then later enter hand (which is why it is important to keep your entry cards to both hands) and finesse by leading the third spade and making the Q10, sitting over East's J9. So you can see that a good declarer will make ONLY three when the computer will tell you you 'should' make four. The computer's play will beat you every time, because the computer can see all four hands, whereas YOU can only 'see' what your intelligent analysis tells you is probably, or hopefully, there.
I do hope I have been able to help the reader understand the need to work on a plan when playing a hand, and to think it out fully before just taking as many tricks as possible in a more or less random way. Being able to form a plan and execute it is not only necessary in business dealings but is also crucial in bridge, please don't forget that.
