Vil's lesson for all (except Dummy)
Wednesday night, 17th May 2017,
deal 4, dealer West, All vul
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AKQ2
AJ9
J54
AQ5I have chosen this deal from this Wednesday's play because it has lessons for North, East, and West. South was dummy so no lessons to be learnt there. Let's take a look at the simple bidding that should land North in 3NT, which is a 2NT opening from North (balanced hand with 20-22 HCP) and an automatic raise to 3NT. Opposite 20-22 HCP, South's diamonds are good enough for 3NT.
The singleton heart should not be of concern since North is bound to have some high heart cards among the 20 or more points in the hand. Simple evaluation and simple bidding, so I suppose there is also a lesson for South. Now for East's lesson. I note that all the Easts led the SEVEN of hearts, which was fourth highest. Fourth highest against NT is what is recommended, but NOT if you have a solid sequence at the top, or a NEAR solid sequence such as East has.
What the lead of a lower one will achieve is to give declarer a cheap trick with the JACK if he has it. Therefore the KING is what the Easts should lead, but they didn't, so North did not have a problem. But if East had led the KING as they should do with that holding, North, as declarer, would have had a good lesson to learn. By the simple play of allowing East's king to hold, North is safe from a heart continuation. See what happens if declarer grabs the ace.
Declarer will then lose a diamond to West and when West returns a heart, the roof will fall in, with East taking the next five heart tricks. Now let's say declarer refuses to take the king when it is led. West should SIGNAL by playing the TWO, which is a DISCOURAGING signal. East will be deterred from leading another heart and will try something else, a low spade being the most logical after seeing dummy. Declarer will then play on diamonds, leading the jack for a finesse.
Now cometh the lesson for West. West can see that winning the first diamond would leave dummy with four tricks there, so, seeing no outside entries, West should refuse the first trick. Next, declarer continues with a low diamond and East shows out.
But now another lesson for North. When Plan A fails, try Plan B. Declarer puts in the ten from dummy and West must duck once more. But declarer can now try the clubs, leading low to the queen for a successful finesse and then ace another to set up the club suit for two more tricks thanks to the diamond ace as an entry to the clubs! A wonderful hand with many lessons, but I wonder how many of them were learnt when this deal was played?
