Careful Play Pays Off
From Wednesday 1st Feb.
Apart from the need to get basic bidding right, it also helps if the newer player can get basic things right when given the responsibility of playing a hand.
Board 13 Dealer N ALL Vul
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T982
Q9876
T4
ATNorth invariably led a low heart against 3NT by West. It is difficult for me to imagine how any competent West can fail to make twelve tricks. Maybe there was a problem with the communication between the hands. There shouldn't be. The first thing declarer should do when the first trick is won (it doesn't matter whether in hand or dummy) is to test the diamond suit and there is only one way to do that, by playing the ace and king. As I have pointed out before, there is no (sensible) finesse in a hand like this unless you have the lower honour cards (jack and ten) and the TEN is missing so the only play with sensible odds is to play the top ones off. With nine cards missing the queen, the odds are against finessing anyway.
When the diamonds turn out to be 2-2 declarer should think ahead and not just take all the diamond tricks. It is a simple matter to a) set up two club tricks by removing North's ace and then b) play the cards in proper order to take all the rest, by unblocking the king and jack of spades and then entering dummy with a diamond in order to take the ace and queen of spades. Just a bit of thinking out the play before rushing into it should lead to twelve tricks easily enough, so I wonder why one West somehow went two down (MUST have, for some reason, cashed the second heart and set up heart tricks for the defence before removing the defenders' ace of clubs).
But FOUR other declarers made fewer than twelve tricks. I hope the reader will realise the importance of taking some care in playing a hand out, because making ALL available tricks will get more match points than carelessly just playing off what tricks you can see in front of you.
