The First 24 Hours

Brian Senior has written about a key board from Thursday evening's Mixed and Open Pairs.

My presentation from the first 24 hours of the 2022 EBU Summer Meeting, in Eastbourne, is more a matter of possibilities than of actualities. My first exhibit comes from Thursday evening's Mixed and Open Pairs.

Board 23. Dealer South. All Vul.

	A75
	KQ
	Q8763
	A104
K43		QJ109862
10832		74
J42		109
J95		K6
	-
	AJ965
	AK5
	Q8732

If you looked at the double dummy analysis on the hand records sheet, you would see that it is possible, at double dummy, to make 7. This puzzled quite a few people, so, how does declarer come to 13 tricks?

If he takes a spade ruff, he cannot then cash five heart tricks as he has to overtake the second heart, while straightforward play of the club suit leads to a loser. Twelve tricks are easy. The thirteenth?

Say that the opening lead is a spade. Declarer wins the ace, pitching a club from dummy and cashes the king and queen of hearts and, crucially, the ace of clubs. Next he cashes the ace and king of diamonds followed  by the ace and jack of hearts, discarding the four and ten of clubs. A club ruff now brings down the king and establishes the queen as a winner – see the necessity of unblocking the club ace, as without doing so declarer does not have the communications between his hand and the dummy to bring home the contract, Declarer ruffs a spade, discards his remaining spade on the queen of clubs, and has trumps for the last two tricks, making 13.
Exhibit two comes from the Swiss Teams.

Board 14. Dealer East. None Vul.

	64
	AKQJ106
	Q1095
	7
KJ53		A10972
95		2
K743		A62
AJ3		Q862
	Q8
	8743
	J8
	K10954

    West    North    East    South
    –    –    Pass    Pass
    1    4    Dble    Pass
    4    Pass    Pass    5
    Pass    Pass    5    All Pass

At both tables in my match, E/W misjudged by going on to the five level when they could have collected an easy +500 on defence to 5 doubled.

When North leads out two top hearts, how should declarer play to give himself the best chance of coming to 11 tricks, given that South is very unlikely to hold a doubleton K after North's jump to 4?

The important thing is to make a plan and have a clear end position in mind. Ben Norton made a good attempt.. He ruffed the second heart, cashed the ace and king of spades, bringing down the queen, then crossed to the ace of diamonds to take the club finesse, leading low to the jack.

Norton next played king and another diamond. Alas, North could win and get out safely with the fourth diamond, and there was a club to be lost at the end for down one.

Norton's play would have succeeded had diamonds been three-three and South been forced to win the third round, after which he would have had the unpalatable options of either giving a ruff and discard or leading round to dummy's Q, either of which would have given the contract.

This line of play would also have been successful had North started out with a 2-7-3-1 shape and won the third diamond. Now he would have had to give a ruff and discard. In fact, when North has that shape, the defenders will usually be able to choose which one of them suffers the indignity of being endplayed.
    
Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul.

	J654
	K53
	AQ3
	1072
A1032		Q8
86		AQJ10974
864		K7
KQ84		53
	K97
	2
	J10952
	AJ96

To reach the borderline heart game, East has to make an aggressive decision at some point during the auction. He might open 4, though the 2-7-2-2 shape is not ideal for this action, or he can start with 1 then rebid 3 over the 1 response. That will get 4 from partner, but many Easts will have rebid a simple 2 and been left to play there.

Daily Telegraph bridge correspondent, Tom Townsend, found an unusual way to resolve the problem – instead of bidding some number of hearts, he opened a 20-21 2NT! Ben Norton of course used Stayman then signed off in 3NT and Townsend left it there. 

The opening lead was the jack of diamonds to the queen and king. Townsend crossed to the ace of spades and led that lovely eight of hearts and ran it, repeated the finesse, and had nine tricks for +400.

Board 46. Dealer East. None Vul.

	QJ3
	10
	AQJ87
	QJ102
K107		A94
AKQ983		J76
43		K952
AK		743
	8652
	542
	106
	9865

My opponents bid to 6, played by West – a pretty poor contract. Misreading the information coming from the bidding, I led the queen of spades. As you can see, that was not a roaring success, as declarer could now pick up three spade tricks and required only that the A be onside.

However, once our opponents had bid the small slam and played it from the West seat, we were doomed, assuming good declarer play.

This is another example of visualising the end position you want to reach and playing to make it so. 
Declarer needs the ace of diamonds to be onside and, short of a miracle in the spade suit, needs to find the same defender holding both the missing spade honours and at least four diamonds, meaning that he can be squeezed.

Say that North leads the queen of clubs, a more normal choice than the spade. Declarer wins, cashes the ace and king of hearts, then leads a diamond up. It doesn't matter whether North takes the ace or not. Let's suppose that he does not. Declarer wins the king and gives up a diamond. On a club return he wins, crosses to the jack of hearts, and ruffs a diamond. Even if diamonds started out divided four-three, that leaves only one defender able to guard diamonds, and if he is also the only defender with a spade guard, he is dead and buried when declarer cashes the hearts, and the contract is home.

If whoever wins the defensive diamond trick returns a spade – honour or spot card – declarer should win in hand with the king and retain the ace as the crucial dummy entry to allow the squeeze to operate.

And why have I made a point that we were doomed once they played it from the West seat? In the unlikely event that East declares 6, South can lead a spade, and a second round upon winning the ten of diamonds, attacking declarer's entries so that there is no squeeze.

by Brian Senior