Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Trick 1 Decisions - Part 4

If you enjoyed Part 1; Part 2 and Part 3 of this test, lets go ahead with more hands. But remember! After you see the dummy, before to run the trick to your hand....

STOP!!!
  • Count your tricks and your losers.
  • Plan your play.
  • Plan your entries.
  • Ask your opponents about their leads and carding system.
And only then start to play.

Try to make your decision before you look at the solution. No peeking!
The following hands are your test. Give yourself 10 point for each time you made the contract, and 0 for making the wrong decision. Be honest! Did you score well?

For the purpose of this test we'll assume, about the leads:
  • 4th best against NT always promises an honor, denies sequence (3cards sequence, full or broken vs NT, and 2 card sequence vs trump).
  • Low lead in Partner's suit promises honor.
  • 2nd best from a suit without honor.
  • 10 and 9 leads are either top of nothing (1098x, 987x) or 2 higher (KJ10xx, Q109xx)

Start the test now!
  1. Against 4♠, West leads the ♥A. West overcalled 2♥ and East bid 4♥. What do you do?






    2. You have a 100% line if you play safe. Throw a club from hand at trick 1 and let West win the trick! Ruff the Heart continuation (or win the ♣A if he switches), pull trumps, then play the ♣A and the ♣Q to take a ruffing finesse. That way you avoid losing the hand to East, since a Diamond switch from East is most unwelcome.

    If the ♣K is with West – you lose it and lose 1 Diamond trick, then you can throw 2 Diamonds later on the promoted clubs. As cards lay – you make 11 tricks, losing the ♥A and ♦A: Since the ♣K is with East – you ruff it, use trumps to reenter dummy, and throw 2 Diamond losers on the good clubs. If you ruff at trick 1 – you go down: After pulling trumps, you need to try the club finesse. East wins, switches to Diamonds – and the defense wins 1 club and 3 Diamonds tricks.

  2. You play 6♠ and West leads the ♥2. What do you do?






    3. Finesse or not finesse the ♥Q? Do not finesse! Why? Because even if the Heart finesse works, you still need a successful club finesse, as you have a sure Diamond loser. However, if the Heart finesse fails – you are down for sure, losing a Heart and a Diamond.

    In other words: this Heart finesse is useless! To make your contract you need a successful club finesse. Win the ♥A, pull trumps, then play the ♣K and a club to the ♣10. When the finesse succeeds, return to hand with a trump, and finesse again to the ♣J. Throw your Heart loser on the ♣A and claim 12 tricks, losing 1 Diamond and ruffing your last Diamond in dummy.

  3. You play 4♠ and West, who overcalled 2♦, lead the ♥6. What do you do?






    4. West has no reason to underlead the ♥K. He does lead a Diamond as he is most likely to hold ♦AQ.

    The danger of playing a low Heart is that West could have 6 Diamonds: In that case, East will win the ♥K, switch to Diamonds and you are 2 down: ♥K, Diamond to ♦A, low Diamond ruff, Club to ♣A, and another Diamond ruff.

    So... Win the ♥A, pull trumps and play the ♥Q. Opponents will win a trick, but you manage 1 Diamond discard + score your ♦K by playing a Diamond to the ♦K. You lose 1 Club, 1 Diamond and 1 Heart.

  4. You play 3NT after East opened the bidding with 1♠. West leads the ♥5. What do you do?






    5. East's lead shows an honor – his only honor is, most likely, Qxx5x. Therefore you play low and East plays the ♥K.

    Now what? You can win the ♥A and make sure of another Heart trick... But if you do so, the moment East wins the lead with one of his aces, he will play another Heart, on which West ducks. You win it cheap with the ♥J but when East wins his second ace, he plays another Heart to West's remaining ♥Qxx. So... Hold up the ♥K and hold up a 2nd Heart too. Win the ♥A on the 3rd round of hearts and West's hand is dead. You lose 2 Hearts and 2 aces.

  5. You play 3NT and West leads the ♣5. What do you do?






    6. If you automatically take the free finesse, East will cover with the ♣Q. When you take the ♣A, West can hold up 1st Diamond and you are down as your hand is dead. In addition, holding up your ♣A will not save you, as opponents can duck spade now and you lose the ♦K and 3 spade tricks later. So, Wake Up! Count your tricks! 4 diamond tricks will do the job. Win the ♣K at trick 1 and run the ♦J. West can win the ♦K at the 2nd round but you still have the ♣A to enter your hand and enjoy your Diamonds.

  6. South plays 3NT. Partner leads the ♥10 to the suit you overcalled. What do you do?






    7. Duck (and encourage with the ♥9)! Partner's lead is clearly from a doubleton (♥10x). South opened 1♣ (which means he has no 5 card major) and his 1NT rebid is showing a Heart stopper (♥Jxxx). Since you have no other entry to hand, you need to play low (but show partner that you like his lead), and when Partner wins a Diamond trick, he has a 2nd Heart to play to your remaining ♥AKQx. Defense will score 1 Diamond and 4 Heart tricks.

    If you cash all your top Hearts right away, you will score only 3 Heart tricks.

  7. Against 4♥ West leads the ♦2. What do you do?






    8. If you try the finesse (50%) and it fails – East will switch to spades and you cannot avoid losing 1 Diamond, 2 Spades and 1 Club.

    Your best chance is to play to promote the 5th club (approx 84%). You manage if clubs are either 3-3 (36%) or 4-2 (48%): Win ♦A, play ♥A and duck a club. Opponents win, cash their ♦K and switch to spades. Win the ♠A, play a club to the ♣A, ruff the 3rd club high, play Heart to ♥J, ruff a 4th club, and use dummy's ♥K to enjoy your 5th club, throwing spade from hand, and thus you are making 10 tricks (you score 11 tricks if clubs are 3-3 , discarding 2 Spades on the last 2 high clubs).

  8. You play 5♦ and West, who opened 3♥ (preemptive) as dealer, lead the 2♠. What do you do?






    9. If you play low to enjoy the free finesse – you will regret it later. East will play the ♠Q and when you play on Diamonds or Clubs – East will get the hand and give West a Spade ruff for 1 down: 2 aces and 1 Spade ruff for the defense.

    You must realize that the lead indicates a singleton. Win in dummy with the ♠K at trick 1 and play the ♥A at trick 2, discarding your ♠A from hand! Continue with Diamond next but when East gets the hand with the ♦A and plays back a spade – You ruff high in hand, cash trumps and lose just 2 aces.

  9. You play 3NT and West leads the ♥4 (4th best, promises honor). What do you do?






    10. Play low from dummy and when East plays the ♥9 – play LOW again! That play does not cost you a trick as you still have 2 sure Heart tricks.

    If you win the 1st trick with the ♥J and run the ♦10, East will win the ♦Q and return a heart. You are doomed to fail now as West will knock out your Heart stopper if you hold up and use his ♦A to cash his remaining Hearts.

    If you hold up and East continues Heart you will win this trick, play spade to hand, run the ♦Q, and now East has no more Hearts to play. He will to try to play a Club – but you should play the ♣A and continue with Diamonds. You manage to score 1 Club, 3 Diamonds, 2 Hearts and 3 Spade tricks.

  10. South is playing 3NT and partner leads the ♣4 (4th best, promise honor). Declarer plays low from dummy. What do you do?






    11. Stop! Think! Which honor can partner have?

    If partner has the ♣J and declarer has the ♣A (♣Ax or ♣Axx), declarer will surely play the ♣Q from dummy, trying to score it, with the hope your partner underlead the ♣K. Also, if partner has the ♣J and the ♣A, and declarer has no honor – he will also try the ♣Q, hoping your partner lead from ♣AK.

    BUT, declarer played low. That means he has the ♣J and partner has the ♣A. Play the ♣K at trick 1 and continue with the ♣10 to avoid blocking the suit. Partner wins the ♣A, continues with a club to your ♣9, you continue with the ♣7 to his ♣8 and he cashes his last club for 1 down.

    If you play the ♣9 at trick 1 – declarer makes at least 10 tricks (it would be correct to play the ♣9 if dummy has ♣Qxx because jumping with the ♣K risks to promote the ♣Q and maybe then declarer also has the ♣A)


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Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Trick 1 Decisions - Part 3

If you enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2 of this test, lets go ahead with more hands. And remember! After you see the dummy, before to run the trick to your hand...

STOP!!!
  • Count your tricks and your losers.
  • Plan your play.
  • Plan your entries.
  • Ask your opponents about their leads and carding system.
And only then start to play.

Try to make your decision before you look at the solution. No peeking!

The following hands are your test. Give yourself 10 point for each time you made the contract, and 0 for making the wrong decision. Be honest! Did you score well?

For the purpose of this test we'll assume, about the leads:
  • 4th best against NT always promises an honor, denies sequence (3cards sequence, full or broken vs NT, and 2 card sequence vs trump).
  • Low lead in Partner's suit promises honor.
  • 2nd best from a suit without honor.
  • 10 and 9 leads are either top of nothing (1098x, 987x) or 2 higher (KJ10xx, Q109xx)

Start the test now!

21. Partner leads the ♠4 against 3NT (South opened 1NT and on North's stayman he bid 2♦). What do you do?






Partner is very weak, having max 2 points, 1 of them is the ♠J. He therefore has Jxx4x in spade as South denied majors in the bidding. If you win the Ace and continue with the ♠Q, declarer will hold up, win the ♠K next, and West has no entry to his hand. Play the ♠Q(!) at trick 1. South must win, as from his point of view West has AJx4 and if he doesn't take the ♠K now he will not take it at all (he must hope spades break 4-4). After winning the ♥A you can continue with ♠A and a 3rd spade to Partner's ♠J and the rest of the spades sets the contract.

22. South plays 3NT and West leads the ♠9, after you overcalled 1♠ (North opened 1♦ and South bid 3NT). What do you do?






Play low too (best to encourage with the ♠7), as South surely has ♠Qxx, promising a spade stopper for his 3NT bid. If you win and play another spade, you will not have enough entries to develops the spade suit. If you play low, South will win the ♠J and play on diamonds. West will take the ♦K and play another spade, and now you have the ♦A as entry to the good spades.

23. North opened the bidding with 3♦ and South bid 3NT. What do you lead?






South plays 3NT. If the bidding goes 1NT-3NT, you naturally lead the ♣J. But when it's clear that opponents are planning on taking their 9 tricks off the top (like here, where the bidding went 3♦ - 3NT, or against a 3NT gambling opening), basing their bid on a long suit, it's important to make an active opening lead. Lead one of your aces, say ♥A. Partner will discourage with the ♥2 and you will try the ♠A. When Partner encourages, continue with another spade and defense takes 6 tricks right away.

A naive club lead will allow declarer to cash their 9 tricks. Notice that by bidding 3NT, declarer must have a good Diamond holding, normally 3 cards, or 2 with a top honor. He would mostly be exposed in 1 suit, and it is important for the defense to find quickly his weakness and take their tricks fast.

24. South opened 1♥, North bid 1♠, South rebid 2♣ and North passed. What do you lead?






North has longer clubs and short Hearts. That sequence of bidding demands a trump lead, to prevent declarer from ruffing hearts in the short hand. Lead a low Club. Defender should play 3 rounds of clubs (♣AK and a 3rd club) and declarer cannot avoid losing 3 Hearts tricks. Any other lead and declarer makes overtricks via cross ruff.

25. South plays 4♥. What do you lead?






You have a weak trump suit and a singleton. Lead the singleton Diamond. Good chance that Partner might be able to win the lead at some point and give you some Diamond ruff(s). On this hand Partner will get the hand with the ♥A and return a LOW Diamond (= suit preference for club). You will ruff, return a club and Partner will give you another Diamond ruff. Any other lead and declarer ends up with an overtrick, losing just 2 aces.

26. South plays 4♥. What do you lead?






This time you have a good trump suit so lead the ♣K! That will force declarer to ruff the 2nd club and when you get the hand again with the ♥A you continue with another club, forcing him to ruff again. Now you have more trumps than declarer and you have control over the hand. If you lead a Diamond, you manage to ruff 1 Diamond later but you ruff with a natural trump trick and it is not enough to set. Defense wins 2 aces and 1 ruff only).

27. South plays 4♠ after the above bidding. What do you lead?






60 points in the pack? No. Opponents bid game with around 20 points, as they are short in your suits. Lead the ♠A and another spade (a low spade also sets). If you lead Diamond or Heart, declarer will win 3 aces and cross ruff the remaining 7 tricks. However, on a trump lead declarer cannot ruff all 3 Hearts losers.

28. Against 4♠ your Partner leads the ♥K. What do you do?






Overtake with the ♥A and play the ♣J. The Diamond suit is too threatening, so you must attack clubs before declarer's club losers will disappear on the good Diamond suit (notice that if West has the ♦K, it will still be bad for the defense as declarer can finesse it and still likely score 5 Diamonds tricks.

29. You play 5♦ and West leads the ♥Q. What do you do?






Ruff in hand (you need to keep the ♥A), pull trumps and play a club to the ♣10. If the ♣J is with West – you limit yourself to just 1 club loser and you can throw a spade loser on the ♥A. If East wins the ♣J and returns a spade – you win the ♠A and play a club to the ♣A. As cards lay – the ♣K drops. You manage to hold the suit to only one club loser and again, you throw a spade loser on the ♥A. If the ♣K doesn't drop when you win the ♣A – Throw the ♣Q on the ♥A, ruff a 3rd club and this promotes the 4th club if clubs are 3-3 (thus you throw the spade loser on the 4th club).

30. You play 6♣ and West leads the ♠2. What do you do?






There is no point to try the double finesse as you can always throw a spade loser on the ♥Q. Win ♠A and play ♣AK. If any opponent has ♣QX – you cash the 3rd club, throw a spade on the 3rd round of hearts, give a spade trick and claim. If the ♣Q doesn't drop – play ♥Q and another Heart to the ♥10! On the ♥AK throw your 2 spade losers (you make also if the 4th Heart get ruffed, losing just to the ♣Q). This line bring success whenever the ♣Q drops or the ♥J is with West.

Stay tuned for Part 4 of the test!
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