Central Carolina Bridge Association

Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina

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Two from Gatlinburg

 by Don Gardner

 (“Rodney”)

The following two hands are from a Knock Out match during the Gatlinburg Regional in April. The only connection between the two deals was that the contracts were not made when they could (should) have been.

Hand 1

You are South and become declarer in the following auction:

Vul: None

     * Asking for a feature

    ** Alerted by East as 6-9 points with or without a feature

OL: 6 of Hearts

East played the ace of hearts followed by the queen which you ruff. Take over, Declarer….

Hand 2

Again you are South and bid to a small slam in clubs with no opposition bidding.

Vul: None

OL: King of Hearts

You take the opening lead with the ace of hearts. What is your plan?

Solutions:

Hand 1:

 The actual declarer took an immediate finesse with the club queen at trick three which was not successful. The key to the hand is how to play the club suit given the explanation of LHO’s three heart bid. The question you need to ask yourself is “Can LHO hold both the ace of diamonds and the king of clubs?”.

The answer is clearly NO since he holds four points in hearts with room for only five more. How can you find out? With a simple play called a ‘discovery’ play. At trick three lead a diamond to the queen in dummy and see if RHO has the ace. If not, then LHO must have it and therefore cannot also hold the club king!

Here is the full layout:

When you find out that LHO has the ace of diamonds, the correct (and only reasonable) play is the ace of clubs at trick four. Yes, it is lucky that RHO has a singleton king, but it is the correct play because LHO CANNOT have it. After the king crashes down on the ace, a spade to your hand and a finesse for the club jack brings home your contract (a diamond goes on the fourth spade).

Note that East misplayed her hand. If she had played a small heart back at trick two, then it might have been harder for declarer to determine the correct way to play the hand. Declarer would have to ask himself why didn’t West lead the king of hearts if he had both the king and queen? The right answer might have been found, but again it might not have.

Hand 2:

The key to this hand is what to do at trick two. Here is the complete deal:

 The actual declarer ruffed a heart at trick two after very little thought. This was not successful and the contract was down one.

The correct play is the finesse the club queen at trick two. If the clubs are 4-0, the contract cannot be made. If the clubs are 2-2, then the contract cannot be defeated no matter who has the club queen. There are three pertinent 3-1 distributions which could cause declarer problems:

 i. If East holds three clubs including both the king and ten, then the contract cannot be made. East will win the club finesse, return a heart, and wait for the setting trick with the ten.

ii. If East holds the singleton king of clubs, then the contract will also fail after a club finesse and a heart return.

iii. If West holds three clubs to the king and ten (the actual situation), then he also has to hold four spades. Declarer would win the club queen at trick two, cash the club ace, then run the spades. West would helplessly follow suit as the declarer sheds two hearts and has the choice to ruff the fifth spade as declarer discards his last heart.

Ruffing a heart at trick two cannot be the right thing to do. The trump finesse at trick two offers a much greater chance of success for the contract than the fifty percent of a finesse.

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Last modified: 06/17/08