Deals 9 - 12 : Bidding and Play

(Lesson 6)
(Down - Deal 8)


Dummy (N *)
S - A 10 9
H - A Q 8
D - Q J 4 3
C - J 10 8 		East
S - Q J 5
H - K 7 3 2
D - K 10 9 2
C - 9 3
West
S - 8 7 4 2
H - J 10 9 5
D - A 7
C - A 7 6 		Declarer (S)
S - K 6 3
H - 6 4
D - 8 6 5
C - K Q 5 4 2

Deal 9 - Dealer is North     (Trick by trick)

Bidding : 1D (N) - 1NT (S) - Pass (N)

Opening Lead : Jack of Hearts (W) = top of a solid sequence

Declarer (S) counts 3 sure winners in the combined hands : A K of Spades and the Ace of Hearts. The four additional winners required can be found in the Club suit, where only the Ace is missing.

Declarer Play
Forcing out opponents Ace to establish winners
Declarer wins the first trick with the Ace of Hearts in Dummy.
He then immediately leads Dummy's Jack of Clubs to force out opponent's Club Ace. (If this does not succeed the first round he leads the Club 10 the next round).

Opponents now can run of 3 heart tricks as well as the Ace and King of Diamonds, but after that Declarer will regain control and win 4 Club tricks and the Ace and King of Spades, making 7 tricks in total.

Score = 40 trick pts + 50 bonus pts = 90 pts total


(Down - Up)


North
S - Q 8 6 5 3
H - 10 7 5
D - A 7
C - Q 10 2 		Dummy (E *)
S - A 2
H - K J 3
D - J 10 9 6 5 2
C - A 4
Declarer (W)
S - K J 7
H - A Q 2
D - 8 4 3
C - K 9 5 3 		South
S - 10 9 4
H - 9 8 6 4
D - K Q
C - J 8 7 6

Deal 10 - Dealer is East     (Trick by trick)

Bidding : 1D (E) - 2NT (W) - 3NT (E) - Pass (W)

Opening Lead : 5 of Spades (N) = fourth card of longest suit

Declarer (W) counts 8 sure winners in the combined hands : A K J of Spades, A K Q of Hearts and A K of Clubs. (A K Q and J of Hearts provide only three tricks as there are only three cards in either hand in that suit)

The additional trick required to make the contract can be provided by the longest suit Diamonds !

Declarer Play
Establishing winners in a long suit
When a contract is in danger of losing play for the opponents' card distribution that may save the contract.
North's opening lead of the 5 of Spades provides Declarer (W) with an immediate extra trick, provided he plays a low Spade in Dummy.
If South also plays a low Spade, Declarer wins the trick with the Jack. If on the other hand South had held and played the Spade Queen, Declarer would have captured it with the King and as a result promote his Jack as a third Spade winner.

At trick 2 Declarer leads a small Diamond from his hand, which is won by South with the Queen. After regaining the lead with the Spade Ace (trick 3), the Jack of Diamonds is lead from Dummy (trick 4). This gets rid of both the Ace and King.
Regaining the lead for a third time with the Spade King, Declarer now runs of all winners in Diamonds, Clubs and Hearts, making a total of 11 tricks.

Score = 40 + 4 x 30 trick pts + 300 bonus pts = 460 pts total

Note however that if the opponent's Diamonds had split 3-1 the contract would have been defeated.

General Rule
When a contract appears to be hopeless, always play for the opponents card distribution which gives you a chance to save the contract.


(Down - Up)


Declarer (N)
S - 10 3
H - J 8 5
D - Q J 10
C - A 10 9 5 2 		East
S - K Q J 5 2
H - 7 6 4
D - 9 7
C - 7 4 3
West
S - 9 6 4
H - 10 9 3 2
D - A 5 4
C - Q J 6 		Dummy (S *)
S - A 8 7
H - A K Q
D - K 8 6 3 2
C - K 8

Deal 11 - Dealer is South     (Trick by trick)

Bidding : 1D (S) - 1NT (N) - 3NT (S) - Pass (N)

Opening Lead : King of Spades (E) = top of a solid sequence

Declarer (N) counts 6 sure winners in the combined hands : A of Spades, A K Q of Hearts and A K of Clubs.
The three additional winners required can be found in the Diamond suit, where only the Ace is missing. When Declarer gains the lead he must therefore immediately play Diamonds in order to remove opponents Ace.

Declarer play
Hold up play   -   Forcing out opponent's Ace to establish winners
The opponents hold eight Spades in the combined hands. If these are divided 5-3 (or worse) between the two hands the opponents can defeat the 3NT contract (by making the Ace of Diamonds and four Spade tricks).
Declarer has only Dummy's Spade Ace to keep control of the Spade suit. If the Ace is played on the first trick, either opponent who regains the lead with the Diamond Ace can lead another Spade. Therefore Declarer decides on a hold-up play.
  1. at trick 1 a small Spade (7) is played in Dummy.
  2. at trick 2 East leads the Queen of Spade, and again Dummy plays low (the 8).
  3. at trick 3 East leads a third Spade, and Dummy finally plays the Spade Ace.

When West (in trick 5) gains the lead with the Diamond Ace he has no Spades left in his hand to lead to partners long suit. Whatever lead he makes Declarer will now win the next trick and play out all his winners, making 10 tricks in total.

Post Mortem
In the present Deal the Opponents Spades were divided 5-3, with East holding 5 Spades. Therefore if East had held the Diamond Ace (instead of West), East would have gained the lead and defeat the contract with his two remaining Spade winners.
If the Spades had been split 4-4, either Opponent could have held the Ace. They would then have made 4 tricks (three Spades plus the Diamond Ace), but Declarer would still have made his 3NT contract.

Score = 40 + 3 x 30 trick pts + 300 bonus pts = 430 pts total


(Top - Up)


North
S - 10 6 3 2
H - J 10 6
D - 8 7 3 2
C - J 9 		Declarer (E)
S - A J 8
H - K 9 2
D - Q J 5
C - Q 10 5 3
Dummy (W *)
S - K Q 4
H - A 4 3
D - A K
C - A 7 6 4 2 		South
S - 9 7 5
H - Q 8 7 5
D - 10 9 6 4
C - K 8

Deal 12 - Dealer is West     (Trick by trick)

Bidding : 1C (W) - 2NT (E) - 6NT(W) - Pass (E)

Opening Lead : 5 of Hearts (S) = 4th highest from his longest and strongest suit

Declarer (E) counts 9 sure winners in the combined hands : A K Q of Spades, A K of Hearts, A K Q of Diamonds and the A of Clubs.
The three additional winners required can be found in Clubs, as the opponents hold only 4 cards (combined total) in that suit.

Declarer play
Establishing a long suit   -   Handling a 9-card suit including Ace and Queen
Declarer wins the first trick in his hand with the King of Hearts.
The standard play when holding 9 cards in a suit (in the combined hands) with the Ace in one hand and the Queen in the other is :
  1. first play the Ace (and see which cards drop), and
  2. then lead a small card to the Queen.

In this Deal it works perfectly.
  • at trick 2 Declarer leads a small Club to Dummy's Ace.
  • at trick 3 Dummy leads another Club, covered by North's Jack, Declarer's Queen and South's King which wins the trick.
After this the Club suit is established and Declarer wins all remaining tricks.

(The contract would only have been defeated if South had held K J x (x) in Clubs over Declarer's Queen.)

Score = 40 + 5 x 30 trick pts + 800 bonus pts = 990 pts total


(Lesson 6 - Deal 13)

Copyright © 2001 - 2006 Michael Furstner (Jazclass).