Rate Yourself 03

Rate Yourself 03
Here you are in 3NT as South, after a sort of misunderstanding with partner. Let's have a look at how
things are.

North (dummy)

QT62

982

AKT85

7

South (you)

J75

AQJ3

J74

QJ6

West leads the four of clubs and when East produces the nine, you win the jack. What should you be thinking?

The prognosis is not promising. You have landed in 3NT and you can see that you would have been far better off in 2H had partner passed your 2H response to his Stayman, or in 3D if YOU had known to pass partner's 3D. It really doesn't matter if you go down by whatever number, so your only hope is to make the unlikely 3NT. A further diagnosis should tell you that West has almost certainly led the low club from AKxxx or even from six of them, so the moment you lose the lead you're history.

Your only hope can be that BOTH red suit finesses work. A long shot, yes, but what else is there? You can count your tricks for a start IF these finesses are successful: FIVE diamond ricks, and THREE heart tricks, but you must play the hand perfectly to get there. If you finesse diamonds by leading the jack of diamonds, which in normal circumstances you would do IF you weren't overly concerned, and West covers with the queen, will you then run off all your diamonds? Have you forgotten that you need THREE heart tricks, and they can only come from TWO finesses (the queen and jack) plus the ace.

In order to be able to take two heart finesses, you have to be able to lead from dummy twice. How will you be able to do that if you take three diamond tricks immediately? You have not left yourself with a second ENTRY to dummy for the second heart finesse. So, when you lead the diamond to dummy and dummy wins, you should immediately take the heart finesse. Remember, you decided that it didn't matter how many down you went, so if the finesse loses, take your medicine.

If the heart to the jack WINS, then you can run all the diamonds and take another heart finesse. If hearts are 3-3 you might even make an overtrick. You're looking forward to gloating but when you lead a second diamond after the successful heart finesse, West shows out! East has a diamond trick with the NINE. You can see now that if you had led a low diamond, the queen would have popped up and solved that problem.

Should you have allowed for the possibility of the singleton queen of diamonds with West? Of course you should have, because if you intended to finesse, you could win the ten and, after the heart finesse, THEN lead the jack of diamonds for another finesse. Do you see the difference? If the queen was sitting on side but was guarded by the nine and two more, you will STILL be able to get there if West now covers. Simply win the ace and take the second heart finesse and you can then finesse against West's nine.
If you led the JACK of diamonds after winning the jack of clubs, score 5.

If you intended to finesse to the TEN and led a low diamond, score 7. Why only 7? Because it is not the perfect solution even though the perfect solution will only be required once in a blue moon. You see, you may have allowed for a singleton diamond queen with West, but did you allow for a singleton queen with EITHER opponent? You could still have done that by leading a low diamond and putting up the ACE (or king) no matter what West plays. If East has a singleton queen, you have just scored a real coup, but if not, you can still proceed with your plan as I suggested before: take the heart finesse and lead the jack of diamonds. If West started with Q9xx in diamonds and covers the jack, you can finesse against the nine at the end, using your second heart finesse as an entry to your hand. Wonderful stuff, so if you led a low diamond intending to play the ace from dummy, score 10.

Declarer play is NOT about taking one trick at a time. It is about planning your play and anticipating what might happen as play progresses. Therefore you must learn to always look ahead and work out what MIGHT happen when you play a certain way. Any hand is about playing thirteen cards in total, not just one. Will YOU be able to plan your play better next time?