Hand of the Month

Perdita Quinlan came across this hand in a Wednesday bridge session.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

    N
     
    S

A  K  8  3
K  6  2
Q  J  5
9  8  5

Most people opened 2 Clubs, however South's bid varied greatly, from 2 Spades to 2 Diamonds to 3NT.

The best outcome is:

South: 2 NT, showing 8 plus HCP and no 5 card suit.
North: 3C, showing suit.
South: 4 NT - Roman Key card Blackwood (asking for Aces and K/Q trump - clubs in this case).
North: 5 D, showing three aces and king of trump.
South: 5H, asking for a Q trump
North: 7 C, having the Q of  trump.

During the session, everyone was in 6 NT and made plus one - noboby was in 7 C.

John Duffy and Ray Lund played this in a rubber bridge game recently. They sat N/S.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

    N
     
    S

K 8 4 3
Q
A K J 10 7 2
Q 9

South was the dealer.

The bidding progressed as follows:

South               West                North               East    
1 Diamond         Pass                 1 Heart            1 Spade       
2 Diamonds       2 Spades          3 Diamonds      Pass
4NT                    Pass                 5 Hearts           Pass
6 Diamonds

The contract makes easily on any lead.

Some interesting points:

- East’s overcall (5 card suit) and West’s support makes life very easy for South as he reasonably concludes that North is singleton or void in spades.
- South’s spade King is well placed.
- North’s raise to 3 Diamonds rather than rebid his hearts is exactly what South wanted to hear.
- South can safely use Blackwood as a 5 Diamond response can be passed.

The question is this:

Without East’s and West’s interference bidding, would John and Ray have reached the excellent slam in Diamonds?

What do you think?

Using the rule of 11 as a Defender.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

    N
W     E
    S

5 3
K Q 10
Q J 8 4 3
A K 4

Dealer: S       Vulnerability: neither

Bidding: 1D; Pass; 2C; Pass
              2 NT; Pass; 3 NT; Pass

Opening lead: 7 Spades

Rule of 11 :      11 – 7 = 4

East assumes the 7 is the fourth highest – he sees A , J , 8 and the K in dummy.
Declarer can not have a higher spade. He therefore underplays the 7 with the 6,
allowing west to remain on lead.
West continues with the 9 and the contract goes down one.

Therefore third hand should use the Rule of 11 – when partner has led the fourth highest in a NT contract.

This hand was provided by Perdita Quinlan.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

South opened 1NT, North bid 2 Hearts (transfer to spades) and South played in 4 Spades. 

West leads the 3 Hearts.

The spade finesse loses. How do you play the hand?

As you also must lose to the Ace Diamonds, the problem is to avoid 2 losers in Clubs.

Best chance, which works nicely, is to play for the doubleton Club honour (King or Queen) in either the East or West hand.

First you must clear the hearts, spades and diamonds. Cash the Ace Clubs, exit on a club and whoever wins is end played. Very neat.

Rory is not disclosing what happened at his table!

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

    N
    S

The contract is 1 NT  by South. West leads the 4 clubs.

The only danger to the contract arises if:

- The lead is from a 5 card suit and
- 4 tricks are lost in clubs and
- The leader holds the Ace hearts and the Ace diamonds and
- The spade finesse fails.

If West can be held to 3 club tricks declarer can make 7 tricks (2 clubs, 2 diamonds, 2 hearts and a spade).

How can declarer best ensure 2 club tricks? Should he play the K clubs or the 5 clubs on the 4 club lead?

- If he plays the K and East holds the Ace, he has only 1 stop in the suit.
- If he plays the 5 and East holds the A or Q, he still has 2 stops in the suit.
- If he plays the 5 and East has any other holding, he has 2 stops in the suit. 

The key play from dummy is the 5 clubs and not the K clubs.

This hand was presented by Gerry Quin who saw it played in a rubber bridge game in the Club.   

Gerry was dummy and saw his partner put up the King on the opening lead - East produced  the Ace and the contract failed.

Gerry is not disclosing the name of his partner.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

    N
W     E
    S

The contract is 3 Hearts  by South (South opened 1 Heart, North raised to 3 Hearts and South passed). Opening lead 4 Spade by West.

You are East.

Your thought process is as follows:

- Partner has 4 spades to the 10 (his lead was 4th best to an honour. I can see the 3 and 2 together with the A, K, and Q).
- Therefore declarer has 2 spades. That makes two losers in spades.
- Declarer has 4 or 5 hearts for his opening bid. Let’s assume he has 5.
- He has therefore probably 6 cards between clubs and diamonds.
- Dummy has 6 diamonds and I have 3. Assume the diamonds are 2/2 between West and declarer.
- Therefore declarer has 4 clubs. 
- Declarer has a minimum opening bid (he did not accept North’s invitation to bid game).
- Therefore he probably has 12 or 13 points.
- Therefore my partner (West) probably has 4 points, possibly 5.
- I can see three Jacks and three Queens so partner could have a King Queen or a King Jack.
- Declarer must have the diamond Ace (for his opening bid) and we will assume he also has the King.
- What losers does declarer have?
Spades – 2, Hearts – possibly 1, Diamonds – none, Clubs 4.
- How can he dispose of his losers?.
- He cannot set up the diamond suit for discards as I control that suit and I control his entries in spades and clubs.
- He can ruff 3 clubs in dummy, if we permit him.

Therefore, I must switch to a heart immediately and sink the contract.

- If declarer plays low, and partner has the King, partner will win and continue hearts. Declarer loses 3 Clubs, 1 heart and 2 spades.
- If declarer rises with the Ace Hearts, he loses an extra Club trick.
- If declarer has the King Hearts, he cannot have the King Diamond so he loses a Diamond instead. 

The golden rule is to lead trumps as often as possible if declarer needs to trump losers in dummy.

This hand appeared in a rubber bridge game in the club in 2009.

Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:


Spades:
Hearts:
Diamonds:
Clubs:

Q J 10
J 9 4 3 2
J 8 7
A 3
  N
  S
A K 9 8 7 2
A 5 
A 10 5
6 5

The contract is 4 spades. You are South and West leads the 6 Hearts. How would you play the contract?

You count your losers as follows:

Notes:
- You have 4 losers and can only afford 3.
- You cannot ruff any losers in dummy and you have no long suit available to provide a discard.
- You can however establish your long heart suit, if the suit breaks 3-2 or 4-1. It looks as if the lead is 4th best (the 5,4,3,2 are clearly visible) so we assume the suit is breaking 4-1.

By leading hearts 4 times (winning once with the Ace, conceding 1 and ruffing 2 others with your high trumps in your own hand) you establish the 5th heart in dummy. This established heart then provides a discard for one of your losers.

To make this work, after you play the Ace and another heart, you require 2 entries to dummy to set up the suit and one more to play the 5th heart for the discard (in all 3 entries to dummy).

You have 4 entries (3 in trumps and 1 in clubs), so there is no problem.

The key is to use your high trumps in your own hand to ruff the hearts and to use the high trumps in dummy as entries and at the same time to draw the opponents’ trumps.

The play will proceed as follows:
Win the lead with the Ace Hearts, play the 5 Hearts (opponents will win), win any return, enter dummy with the 10 Spades, ruff  the 4 Heart high, enter dummy with the Jack Spades, ruff  the 9 Hearts high (the Jack Hearts is now established), enter dummy with the Queen Spades, cash the Jack Hearts and discard your club loser. We have assumed that trumps break 3-2.

This hand was provided by John Duffy.