Thursday 23 May 2013

Play or defend

Game all
Dealer East
  • Q9732
  • A75
  • A7
  • KJ8
  • none
  • J9863
  • KJ98
  • A543
N
W
E
S
  • A8654
  • K2
  • 1064
  • 976
  • KJ10
  • Q104
  • Q532
  • A102
West
North
East
South
-
-
Pass
Pass
1
1
Pass
2spade raise
Pass
2NT
Pass
4
All pass
West
North
East
South
-
-
Pass
Pass
Pass
1
Pass
2
X
Pass
3
X
All pass

The team I was on came fourth in the Crockfords final: we should have played better.  Especially, we should have defended better.  On this hand, we won the board in the auction and lost it in the defence at both tables.

At the first table, our West opened in third seat - not my choice with that poor suit - and opponents bid to 4♠, an unlikely contract even without the 5-0 break.  However, East naturally led the king of hearts.  Declarer has a chance now - he needs to draw trumps, knock out the ace of clubs, and end-play West in the red suits.  However, with the bad spade break entries are a problem.  He started, far-sightedly, with a club to the ten.  West ought to duck this - necessary if Declarer's spades are one spot stronger - a difficult but not impossible play.  At the table, West won and returned a club.  Declarer won that and played on spades: East now needs to do the right thing.  Because East has got the eight of spades, declarer needs two entries to hand, one to play the fourth round of trumps and one to play the fifth.  But he can't afford to use the ace of diamonds because that would break up his strip-squeeze.  So, to beat the contract East must duck three rounds of spades.  I think he ought to see this, but it's not easy.

At the second table, I tried a heavy raise to 2♠, and was lucky to hit the right layout for my action.  East helped us in the auction by radiating uncertainty before bidding 3♣.  I led the jack of spades - perhaps a trump is better.  East won, and has two reasonable ways to play the contract for two off.  One is to ruff a spade, play a heart to the king, ruff another spade, play another heart, and come to a heart ruff, the ace of clubs, and a late diamond trick.  The other is to play on diamonds.  However, if you choose the diamond play, you should lead a low one.  Our declarer selected the ten, a card he should have saved so that he could take two more finesses later.  The ten of diamonds ran to the ace, and North should now switch to trumps.  Instead, he tried a low heart, on which declarer strangely played low, again booking himself for three off.  I won the queen and switched to a trump.  Declarer took the second round and played a heart off dummy: North unaccountably ducked, giving declarer two tricks - the king of hearts and a heart ruff - to leave him one off.  So perhaps declarer knew what he was doing after all.

Of course there were other hands, on at least one of which I perpetrated a misdefence at least as horrible as this.  But the rest of the play on it was less interesting...