Vil on 31THU
This deal came from a recent Thursday (Aug 4) but is worth discussion, since this was a “Swiss Pairs” event and a number of Wednesday and 'just past Wednesday' players were taking part.
It really does not matter what type of event you're playing in, the most important thing always is: make your contract. In what should have been an easy enough 4H contract, SEVEN out of eight Souths failed. Let us examine WHY they failed.
Board 3 Dealer S EW Vul
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A975
A97
A8
J874I don't expect that the play was the same at all the tables where the declarers failed, but I will recount the way the play went at one table. West led the five of clubs and East won the ace and returned the nine. South could see no losers to discard, so ruffed the return. He then started on trumps, leading a trump to dummy's ace and returning the seven, finessing the jack which lost to the queen. West switched to a spade which declarer won in dummy, preserving the entry to hand. He then drew the last trump from East and started on diamonds, playing the queen from hand and allowing it to run.
That is, of course, a standard finesse. East won the king and returned another club and South was in a dilemma, having to ruff this with his last trump. He led a diamond to dummy's ace, and returned to hand with the king of spades. Then he played his jack of diamonds but had to concede a diamond to East allowing four tricks for the defence.
There is not just one way to finesse. Leading TOWARDS your honour card or cards is ALSO a finesse. Declarer should have seen that even if the diamond finesse - the way he took it - worked, he still had potential diamonds losers in hand anyway. He should also have seen the danger in taking the trump finesse as well, because this was an event where TEAMS scoring was used and the prime importance was to make the contract, rather than try and make overtricks (which were not likely anyway if you follow my earlier comments about ways to finesse and ways not to).
The sensible way to play this hand is surely to ruff the club return and then take two TOP hearts before playing the ace of diamonds and returning a low one towards the QJ. If East goes up with the king, problem solved. If East plays low, declarer wins the jack and can ruff a diamond, then losing just one diamond at the end. Making FIVE thanks to maintaining control, which would have been a great reward for any of the declarers who failed to follow the suggested line of play.
And, also, had declarer played on diamonds immediately without drawing any trumps at all, the same result would have been obtained had he played the diamonds as I have suggested. Declarer would still have been in control, even if there was an unexpected adverse ruff (which there wasn't).
The defence I have described here may not have been repeated at the other tables, so I can only surmise that the other declarers managed to fail in some other way, no doubt taking the trump finesse the LOSING way, as well as taking the diamond finesse the way they should not have. It's true, of course, that the trump finesse might have worked, and the 'standard' diamond finesse might also have worked perfectly, with Kxx sitting 'in the pocket' and the suit happily breaking 3-3. Had that been the case, the declarers who 'misplayed' the hand would have made six. The declarer who made only four would have lost 2 IMPs instead of gaining 11.
Yes, lucky things can happen but you make your own luck if you play with control and with the odds.
There is a big difference between a normal match point session and where better, more calculated, play is necessary. Maybe the experts will pick my suggested line of play to pieces, but there is one declarer who will agree with my suggested line of play. Or did that declarer simply get lucky. If it was you, do tell me!
