Gator Bridge Slam
The Kibitzer is Shirley Wright
By Jon Shuster, Gainesville, GL.
Gator Bridge Slam, 3/28/06
Shirley: I watched this interesting board as it transpired. As usual, I will first relate to you what happened, and then you can try to find the errors in bidding and play, before reading my solution. This hand has a very important lesson, seldom written about in books or columns.
Dlr: East (Neither side Vul). (Board 8, rotated)
North
S-AQ98
H-AJ52
D-A65
C-KQ
West East
S-10 S-543
H-K1087 H-Q963
D-K73 D-J1042
C-108762 C-J4
South
S-KJ762
H-4
D-Q98
C-A953
The bidding went:
West North East South
- - P 1S
P 2H P 2S
P 4NT P 5H (1)
P 5NT P 6C (2)
P 6S P P
P
- (1) 2 Key Cards (CA and SK)
- (2) No Kings in H, D, or C.
Note that NS play strong jump shifts and Jacoby 2NT (Forcing raises of majors, asking for a singleton)
The play proceeded as follows.:
North led the C6 (4th best) to dummy’s Q. Declarer proceeded to “reverse the dummy” , playing the HA, ruffing a Heart, entering the dummy with the CK (West playing the C2 and East the CJ) and SQ (noting the fall of West’s 10), to ruff the last two Hearts. With Hearts 4-4, this eliminated all Hearts in the deal.
Here was the situation with South to lead: (needing 5 of the last 6 tricks)
North
S-A98
H-
D-A65
C-
West East
S- S-54
H- H-
D-K73 D-J1042
C-1087 C-
South
S-K
H-
D-Q98
C-A9
South now played the SK (West playing low), followed by the CA. East ruffed this and returned the DJ. South tried the DQ and when West showed up with the DK, the hand went down one for a tie for bottom.
Two pairs reached 6S (both down 1), and the other 5 pairs played game, with only one making six, perhaps played by North on a transfer sequence with the DJ led, in which case the hand is gin for 12 tricks.
Can you spot any errors in bidding or play?
Bidding errors:
While I think South is a tiny bit weak for the opening 1S bid, NS play losing trick count (2S, 1H, an optimistic 2D, and 2C). Seven losers qualify a hand for an opening bid. No bidding error is therefore charged to South, who said the Diamond spots (98) and SJ were the deciding factors.
North’s 2H bid was a clear error. No useful information would emerge from such a bid. It is better to seize control by bidding a Jacoby 2NT, which tells partner you have 4 card Spade support and establishes Spades as trump at a very low level. After the 1S-2H-2S bidding, there were no further faults. If South had two kings, a grand slam would be justified. Otherwise you settle for small slam.
Here is a model bidding sequence, given the 1S opener:
South North
1S 2NT (Jacoby)
3H (1) 4NT
5H (2) 5NT
6C(3) 6S
- (1) Singleton Heart
- (2) 2 Keycards, denies a 6th Spade (extra length is shown as the trump Q)
- (3) No Minor suit K (The Heart K does not get shown after showing a singleton)
Note that on this auction, if you change the DQ to the DK, North can count 7S tricks (on the dummy reverse), 1H, 2D, 3C for 13 tricks. Note that if you change those two cards, the Club ruff by East never happens, because declarer after ruffing the 3H, has the DK as an entry to his hand, and so after ruffing the 3H, he can pull all the trump, enter his hand with the DK before playing the CA. Also note that North does not bid 7 if South has the HK but not the DK.
Bidding summary: The only bidding charge goes to North’s 2H call.
Play errors: If you thought declarer should have pulled all 3 trump right away, you are wrong. That way, declarer can only score 6 trump tricks, whereas the dummy reversal, ruffing three Hearts, got declarer to seven trump tricks. His plan was to score 7 trump tricks, 3 Club tricks against a normal 4-3 Club split, and the two red aces for 12 tricks. If the Club ruff occurred, declarer might overruff and still try the for the Diamond Q when West has the long trump, or if East is the one, East might be down to only Diamonds and have to lead from the DK.
West erred by playing the C2 on the second Club. It is imperative to falsecard with the 7 or 8.to avoid giving declarer the count. This falsecard cannot cause any problem for East.
Note that once declarer found out Hearts split 4-4, it takes all of the following to go down: Clubs had to split 5-2, the Diamond K had to be with West, and trump had to split 3-1. If you do pull trump, you need to have the DK with East to make the hand, it all boils down to that. So pulling trump is clearly wrong.
Our declarer missed two strong clues at the point in the above diagram, and could and should have taken advantage of the fact that his opponents were relatively inexperienced players.
The first clue is that West led the C6, and played the C2 on the second Club. If that was 4th best, it probably means that West has five. Second, East dropped the CJ on the second Club. True, it might be from J10, but all in all, the odds now have strongly changed to the Clubs being 5-2.
So the recommended play in the above 6 card diagram as as follows. South leads the SK and when West shows out, overtakes this and pulls the last trump, pitching a Club from his hand.
Now lead a Diamond from dummy. At the level of play of EW, East will rise with the K if she has it, so when that does not happen, declarer should assume West has the DK.
- (a) If East splits her honors, duck. East, down to only Diamonds has to play a Diamond, and the K is trapped. (For the skeptics, East is not good enough to play the 10 from 10xxx.) East now has to lead at this position:
S-8
H-
D-A6
C-
West East
S- S-
H- H-
D-K7 D-J42
C-10 C-
South
S-K
H-
D-Q9
C-A
- (b) If East plays low on the Diamond, put in the 8 and even if West can win the 10 or J, West has to play a Club or lead a Diamond from her K, either way, the slam comes home. (On the actual hand, the 8 would lose to the K, ending all problems.)
So although South played the hand very well, he erred in the end by trying for a third Club with the fallback that East has the DK.
Play summary: Failing to overtake the SK to draw the last 2 trump from East was his only error. South knew the skill level of his opponents. Had the EW pair been known to be experts, then no error would be charged to declarer.
Sidelight: It may seem logical to pull a second trump after the S10 shows up on the first round of trump. This would actually eliminate the flexibility of deciding whether to cash the CA or isolate it.
Here is the situation with South to lead if the extra trump was pulled early: (needing 4 of the last 5 tricks)
North
S-A9
H-
D-A65
C-
West East
S- S-5
H- H-
D-K73 D-J1042
C-1087 C-
South
S-
H-
D-Q98
C-A9
If South ruffs a Club at this point and pulls the last trump, the South hand is squeezed, leading to two losers. If South leaves the trump outstanding, East has a safe trump exit. Either way, it is down 1.
Lesson: The best line of play often depends upon the skill level of your opposition. As cited above, declarer’s play would have been correct against experts, as East would not go up with the DK if she had it in the end game, leaving declarer with an extremely tough guess, no better than just playing East for the DK. The added possibility that East has 3 Clubs would be completely lost by such an alternate line.