Shirley the Kibitzer – March 2005
The Kibitzer is Shirley Wright
By Jon Shuster
Gainesville, FL
These two deals come from the week of March 7, 2005 with Hand 1 from the Gator Bridge game on Tuesday and Hand 2 coming from the Town Club, which is moving to Oak Hammock. I will give you the hands as played, and let you be judge as to who made errors. These hands are at matchpoints.
Hand 1: DLR South, Both Vul (Hands rotated to make South declarer)
North
S-72
H-K42
D-AK97542
C-8
West East
S-KQJ643 S-105
H-J108 H-9
D-Q D-J103
C-964 C-KQJ7532
South
S-A98
H-AQ7653
D-86
C-A10
The bidding:
West North East South
– – – 1H
2S (1) 3D P 3H
P 4H P P
P
- (1) Weak
West led the SK, ducked by South, East playing the 10. West continued with the SQ
and South won the SA. South cashed the HA, ruffed a Spade (East pitching the C7),
cashed the HK, returned to the CA, and ran all of the trump to reach a three card ending
With South holding D-86 C-10, North holding D-AK9 and East having to pitch from
D-J103 and C-K. In practice, East pitched the D3, so South won the D-AK9, to make six for an absolute top board. Can you spot the errors in bidding and play?
Hand 2: DLR West, Both Vul (Hands rotated to make South declarer)
North
S-None
H-K92
D-AQ643
C-AK1065
West East
S-KQ872 S-J1093
H-A1054 H-J8763
D-None D-987
C-QJ72 C-8
South
S-A654
H-Q
D-KJ1052
C-93
The bidding:
West North East South
1S Dble 2S 3D
3S 4S(1) Dble 5D(2)
P 6D P P
P
- (1) Strong with fit
- (2) Better hand than a pass, which is forcing
West led the SK, the H2 was pitched from dummy, East played the SJ, and Declarer won the SA. Next, the HQ was led to the HA, East playing the H3 (odd number). A Heart was returned to the HK (South pitching a Club). Trumps were pulled in three rounds. The play finished with South playing the CA, CK, C ruff, S ruff, another Club ruff, declarer’s last trump, and another S ruff with dummy’s last trump. Dummy’s last card was the good C10. In all, declarer made 5 trump in the South hand, 2 Spade ruffs, the SA, HK, and C-AK10 for a total of 12 total tricks, and a near top.
Can you find the errors in bidding and play?
Hand 1 analysis: I found no errors in the bidding. Bolder players might have bid 4C with the East hand over 3D, especially as a lead director, but Pass is considered equally
correct.
The play of Hand 1 leaves much to be desired, even though the best line of play results in only 11 tricks. (Error 1) Declarer’s first error was ducking the Spade. Given that the Spades are West 6, and East 2 (the only known thing at trick 1), there is about a two in three chance that one or both of the red suits will split 2-2. If either does, and there are no unexpected red suit voids, seven is cold. This is the standard contract, so the Spade duck leads to a trick loss, that can be avoided on two hands in three making the duck a poor play. (Error 2) The second error is declarer ruffing a Spade. On the bidding (remember West’s preemptive bid?), East is also out of Spades, and figures to be able to overruff on the third round. Lucky for declarer, East was out of trump. Given West’s preempt and the fact that both EW originally held at least one trump (they both followed to the HA), East will be able to overruff in seven hands of eight. So again, it was lucky for South that both red suits were 3-1 and it was East with the singleton Heart. For the minor suit squeeze to work, East had to hold C-KQJ along with the 3 Diamonds. Putting that all together, this particular South had less than a one in 100 chance beating the typical declarer, but the lie was just perfect for the line of play. There were two other errors, #3 is somewhat understandable. (Error 3) West should have switched to a Club at trick 2, rather than returning a Spade. The Club entry was vital to the success of the squeeze. Forcing it out early takes all the pressure off East. East cannot have the SA. If East had A10x of Spades, East would have supported Spades. If East had S-A10 , East would have overtaken the Spade, to be in an overruff position on the third round. (Error 4) The other error came when East had to pitch from D-J103 C-K with dummy holding D-AK9 (from an original 7 card holding). There is a chance that partner has the C-10, but no chance that partner has three Diamonds (leaving declarer with a void). The Diamond pitch made no difference on this hand, but still was a bad discard. Some chance is better than none.
Footnote on Hand 1: Without South’s ill advised duck, and Spade ruff, no squeeze would have been possible on this layout. It took a small error from West and two big errors from South to bring in 12 tricks. Optimal play is not always rewarded.
Proper line of play: If Dummy has a powerful suit, it is usually right to establish it in preference to ruffing losers in dummy, thereby killing communications. But see Hand #2!
After winning the SA, lead the HA, a Diamond to the DA, and a trump back to the HQ.
- (a) If Hearts are 2-2, set up Diamonds, ruffing the 3rd if needed, and claim. The HK is your entry (making 7). (b) If Hearts are 3-1, lead a Diamond to the DK. (b1) If both follow, play the HK, pulling the trump, and run Diamonds. (b2) If West has three Hearts (actual hand), play a Diamond toward the board. Thanks to the early D play, West has a Hopson’s choice of ruffing now, establishing Diamonds with the HK as entry (making 5) or pitching, seeing a Diamond ruffed to set up the suit. Either way, you make 5. If East has 3 trump, you make 10 tricks or 12 tricks, depending upon whether East has one Diamond or 2+ Diamonds.
.
Hand 2 Analysis.
Again the four players bid nicely. Some players might prefer an unusual NT to the takeout double, but with 3H to an honor and a void, the takeout double is the call of choice. Some may fault East for bidding 2S, with votes for Pass and votes for 3S (preemptive). I think 2S is about right. The 3D call is pretty automatic. West’s 3S call is acceptable, although Pass is also fine. The 2S bid over the double is very weak, and there may be a trump stack in the South hand. The void in Diamonds could mean you will be forced mercilessly. East might well have only three trump. South might have bid 6D over the great 4S call by North, but the SA appears to be wasted.
Play analysis:
When you play a hand in a trump suit, you need to decide which hand to set up (your hand or the dummy). Declarer clearly decided to set up the dummy, when the first Spade was captured by the A. The defenders should realize this as well. Note that it is easy to get lazy on this hand, as if trump are 2-1, you can pull trump, and make 4 side suit winners, 3 ruffs, and 5 trump for 12 tricks. Even if trump are 3-0, you can pull them and make the hand when Clubs break 3-2. Unfortunately, neither of these happened.
(Error 1) Declarer should have ruffed the first Spade in dummy. The best line is actually to set up dummy, but not by running Clubs. (Error 2 ) Declarer made another error at trick 1 by discarding a Heart, removing a potential entry to South. We will see that later.
Error #3. West could have sent the hand up in smoke by returning a Spade after winning the Heart at trick 2. This forces dummy to ruff, and kills the Club suit. If declarer pulls 3 rounds of trump, there is only one entry (trump) to dummy left outside of Clubs. To set up Clubs, declarer needs to get two Club ruffs and only after all trump are pulled. Also, Declarer can no longer get three Spade ruffs in dummy, because of the Heart pitch at trick 1 denies the critical entry to the Closed hand.
Let us look at the correct play, which handles anything except a 5-0 Club split or 8-1 Heart split (the latter being impossible on the bidding). The goal is to ruff three Spades in dummy. After ruffing the opening Spade lead in dummy, lead a Heart to the Q. West can win and say lead a Heart. You ruff, ruff a Spade high, return to your hand with a trump, ruff your third Spade loser high, and lead dummy’s last trump to your hand, and pull their last trump. The last 5 tricks are won with the SA and one Diamond in the South hand and the HK, and C-AK in dummy. When West is in at trick 2, you have three paths to your hand to get two additional Spade ruffs and get back to your hand to pull trump.
This hand is very unforgiving. Even if you pull a single round of trump, it is one round too many, when as on the actual hand Diamonds are 3-0 and Clubs are 4-1.