A DUCK TAIL.

by Jos van Kan

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Playing Teams (imps) against fair opposition you get in third seat, vul against not as E
 S:963 H:K9643 D:86 C:954
You have had worse hands of course, but also better ones and not unnaturally you pass after pard and RHO also passed. With your side silent throughout opponents have some sort of standard auction:
NorthSouth
pass1NT
2C:2D:
3NTpass
Nothing has been alerted, so 2C: is ordinary Stayman and S has no 4c major. After some deliberation partner leads H:T and dummy reveals:
S: KQT5 H: AQ D: 7532 C: T63
While declarer takes some time to make up his plan, we might as well use that time by thinking about the following questions:
  1. Assuming normal leads and signals, how many H: does partner have?
  2. Who has H:J?
  3. Does partner have a good suit of his own?
  4. How many points does partner have at least?
  5. How do you plan the defense?
  1. At least three, at most four. S has denied 4c H:, and therefore has two or three. With normal leads and signals you'd expect pard to hold three, since with four he would have led fourth best.
  2. Declarer. With JTx(x) pard would have led the J.
  3. Probably pard is looking at a (some) very poor long suit(s), since he led this anemic three card H: suit. It is very improbable that he holds a good suit of his own, or he would have led it.
  4. An easy one. Declarer is 15-17, so opponents have 26-28 HCP, giving pard 9-11 HCP.
  5. So unless we get those H: running there isn't much hope of defeating 3NT. Partner got off the right lead and it would be a pity to spoil it now. If declarer finesses H:Q and we take H:K, we won't have an entry to cash the H: suit, because partner will be out of H: at the time we have established them. So if declarer finesses H:Q we must play an encouraging H9 (without hesitation (!)) to maintain communication. If declarer has to lose the lead twice before he has nine tricks he will go down now.
Post Mortem
This was the hand:
S: KQT5
H: AQ
D: 7532
C: T63
S: J742
H: T85
D: A94
C: A82		S: 963
H: K9643
D: 86
C: 954
S: A8
H: J72
D: KQJT
C: KQJ7
If E takes H:K in trick 1, S comes easily to 10 tricks. This hand was defended by the Dutch Master Rob van Leeuwen from the Hague. He ducked HK instantly and got the satisfaction of defeating 3NT by one trick. He expected to gain on this hand, not unnaturally, but it was not to be. As it turned out, at the other table NS were playing the mini (10-12) NT. N opened 1NT and S raised to 3. After due deliberation E chose to lead 4th best from longest and strongest... No score! :-)
copyright © 1997 by Jos van Kan. All rights reserved.