What & Why (29)
This will be the final “What and Why” for now, as I will be busy with some improver lessons at the Hutt Club. These will be aimed at newer players who want to go to the next step. The lesson hands and notes can be found on the NZ Bridge web site but I will be adding one or two comments from my own perspective, hoping that these will help the improver to further understand the game.
The following deal comes from a teams match.
Dealer N EW Vul
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Q8
KQ4The bidding was:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 1 | Pass |
| 1NT | 2 | 3NT | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
West leads S6 How do you play this?
Sometimes the text book has to be ignored, yet only one of my panelists did so on this deal. Everyone should be able to see that, in normal circumstances, when you are playing No Trumps and the lead is the six of spades (in fact any low spade) the one card that you should NOT play from dummy is the king. Why? Because by playing low from dummy you are guaranteed a certain spade stop. Going up with the king risks losing to the ace and a spade back to West’s queen will mean no spade stop at all! How many of us, then, would automatically play low from dummy and ignore the other factors, the most important ones being: this is a TEAMS match and West has bid 2S after NS have both bid. Does that not suggest that West will either have both the ace and queen of spades, or possibly a longer suit headed by the ace? What we must realise is that if West has BOTH the ace and queen of spades, we are down. OR, if East has the queen, then playing low from dummy will result in certain defeat as well, because the suit will then be cleared for West, unless...well, let’s see later.
A second consideration is that unless the defence allows declarer to win the third trick in hand, declarer can’t take a diamond finesse without finding a club entry, and playing on clubs will give an immediate entry to West’s hand.
The only panelist who was near the mark decided that he would play East for Qx of spades. That requires rising with the king from dummy and risking disaster, but gives declarer every chance of being able to play on clubs to gain the entry to hand, as well as block the spade suit. Hardly an Einsteinian analysis but one that nearly all, even experienced, declarers will miss because of their ingrained knowledge of what to play from dummy when hands like this turn up. The only way to make this tricky game is to play the king at trick one. But.... when declarer plays the king of spades from dummy, a top defender will drop the queen, thus unblocking the suit. After West wins the ace of clubs, a diamond switch will see declarer lose the finesse and East will produce the second spade, alas, so six spade tricks plus the ace of clubs and king of diamonds will mean FOUR down. Which deserved a better fate, South’s fine analysis or East’s great defensive play? You be the judge, but also consider that if East had a SINGLETON queen of spades our one panelist would have been the only one to make 3NT despite a losing diamond finesse!
There are a number of possible variations in the play and defence in this deal. For instance if West ducks two rounds of clubs and declarer then takes the losing diamond finesse, there will still be nine tricks via five diamonds, two clubs and one spade and one heart.
Maybe a reader who has access to the Deep Finesse programme can give me the DF full analysis of what can be made with the layout as it is here, as well as the layout if the red kings are switched, which is effectively an even chance. Which line is best if that is the case? (You can tell Vil by clicking here - Ed).
I do hope you have enjoyed this series and learnt much from it. If anyone has any interesting deals in preparation for the next series of What&Why, please do send them to me.
With best wishes for better bridge and better results,
Vil
villyn@xtra.co.nz
