Play Question

Here is your hand:
♠J97643
♥AT
♦AQJ2
♣3

Partner opens the bidding 1♣. Your RHO Passes. What is your bid?

1♠ is a good bid on this hand. No need to jump to 2♠ (that shows a much different hand) since 1♠ is a FORCING bid. Partner MUST bid again.

LHO Passes and Partner bids 4♠. RHO Passes. What is your bid?

Think carefully. What does Partner have?

Most novices think this is a cut off bid. After all, you've just bid a game and that tends to be a sign off bid.

But Partner just bid a game when you have shown a weak hand. All you need to bid 1♠ is 6 HCP. Partner bid a game thinking you have four ♠ and 6 HCP. Partner should have about 19-21 points with four ♠.

This hand should bid again.

Depending on how much you know about exploring slams you can either just bid 6♠ (you have 12 HCP plus 2 Length points) or you can bid Blackwood to find out if you are missing two Aces. If you are not missing two Aces then you can bid 6♠.

In any case you end up in 6♠ and you are Declarer. The opening lead is the 9♥. When you play low from Dummy your RHO plays their J♥. How do you play the contract? Will you take twelve tricks?

Dummy:
♠AQ85
♥85
♦K98
♣AKQJ

Your hand:
♠J97643
♥AT
♦AQJ2
♣3

Tip: Since this is trump you need to count your LOSERS.

Deal out the cards at home and see how you will come to 12 tricks. (Or more!)

Show Answer

Losers:
♠ 1 loser
♥ 1 loser
♦ 0 losers
♣ 0 losers

You have two losers. That is one too many. However there are quite a few ways to get rid of those losers.

1) You can try the ♠ finesse. If the K♠ is on your LEFT you have no ♠ losers.
2) You can easily throw away the ♥ loser on all those ♣ winners. Even if the ♠ finesse loses you will not lose the ♥ because that will go away on the ♣ winners for sure.

No problems here, right?

Hmmmmm. Let's think this through. If I win the opening lead with the A♥ when the opponents get in they can immediately take a ♥ trick. So if the ♠ finesse LOSES then the opponents will then take a ♥ trick.

Does that mean this slam depends on the ♠ finesse? Doesn't really seem fair. If the opponents had lead anything else I would have made this slam for sure. There must be SOMETHING I can do.

Hmmmmm.

Maybe I can throw away my losing ♥ on the winning ♣ BEFORE I take out trump! I know I'm supposed to take out trump (my teacher is ALWAYS nagging at me to do that) but she does say "unless there is a GOOD reason not to take out trump, take out trump!"

I think this is a GOOD reason why not to.

So (this is getting complicated), I win the opening lead with the A♥. Then I play the A♣. Then I play the K♣ and since I have no more ♣ in my hand I can throw away my losing ♥ on the K♣.

So now I am down to this:
Dummy:
♠AQ85
♥8
♦K98
♣QJ

Your hand:
♠J97643
♥
♦AQJ2
♣

Now I'd better take out trump before my teacher catches me! I don't have a reason to delay taking out trump now.

If I want to take the ♠ finesse I need to get back to my hand to play a ♠. So since I am in Dummy, I play the 8♦ back to the A♦ in my hand and play the J♠ from my hand. If LHO plays a low ♠, I will play a low ♠ from Dummy. Phew! The J♠ lost to the K♠ in RHO's hand and they tried to play another ♥ but since I threw my other ♥ away on the K♣ I was able to trump the ♥ return, finish taking out trump and make my contract!

Here are the four hands.

	Dummy ♠AQ85 ♥85 ♦K98 ♣AKQJ
RHO ♠T ♥96432 ♦T73 ♣T987		LHO ♠K2 ♥KQJ7 ♦654 ♣6542
	Declarer ♠J97643 ♥AT ♦AQJ2 ♣3

I could also have just tried to cash the A♠ before I did any of this. That might have been safer. I blame matchpoints for making me try for that overtrick.