Rabbit Coup.
                         By Jos van Kan.

Playing MP's you get in third seat, all vulnerable the following hand 

    S J75
    H A742
    D KQJ7
    C A5

and partner opens 1C. You respond 1D, and partner 1S. This sequence of bids
has quite a wide range so you might belong anywhere from 3NT to 6NT and to
explore you bid 2H, as it happens a real suit, but that is coincidence.
Partner bids 3C, showing 5.

What do you bid now?




















It may seem tempting to bid 3S at this point, showing secondary support, but
the trouble with that bid is, that it really should show a four card in a hand 
too strong to bid a direct 4S over 1S. (There is no other way to show that 
hand)

So you have no option but to bid 3NT. Since you have first bid the
fourth suit and bid 3NT regardless of the absence of a H stop in partner's
hand you are showing surplus values for that bid and, of course, a H stopper.

Partner surprises you with 4D. What could be his pattern? His strength?




















He probably has 4-1-3-5. Because he did not support D directly he almost
certainly lacks 4. He must have some surplus values too, since he chose to
pass the 3NT level. In fact he must see slam chances. What do you do next?



















Since your H stop consists of the Ace (about the best possible holding on this
bidding) you decide to explore for slam. You bid 4H, partner 4S, you wheel out
Old Black and partner shows both missing Aces. What slam do you bid?




















The best strain to bid the slam in appears to be Diamonds, because in that
strain you can profit optimally from the H shortness in partner's hand.
So you bid 6D and all pass. W also has listened to the bidding and leads a
small trump, while partner tables:


    S AK65
    H 3
    D A84
    C KQ843
    
    S J74
    H A742
    D KQJ7
    C A5       S 6D, W leads D2.

Plan the play.




















The slam would be easy if you could trump *two* Hearts in dummy. Unfortunately
you lack entries to get to your hand three times (two times for the ruffs and
a third time to draw trumps). Of course you cannot ruff a club from your four
card trump suit, because that would stake everything on a 3-3 D split.


An alternative is to ruff only one Heart and rely on one of the black suits to
provide an extra trick. That too would bring the grand total to 12. (2 S, 1H,
1H ruff, 4D, 3C + a black trick.) 

So you could play DA, small S to J, if E takes all is over (supposing D and S 
are no worse than 4-2), if W takes you still have time to ruff your H and test
both black suits for a 3-3 break. The good technician may have noticed there
are some extra chances in the form of a black suit squeeze against West.

Anything else?




















Since the S play basically requires the suit to be no worse than 4-2 in order
not to be set immediately (by means of a defensive ruff), and has some losing
variations even if that is true, there is a vastly superior play that only
requires C no worse than 4-2. (And D no worse than 4-2, but the S play
requires that too.) Can you spot it?




















(with due apologies to Victor Mollo, whose characters I have borrowed for 
 the occasion)
"...The Rueful Rabbit took the D lead with the A and nostrils all aquiver set
about establishing dummy's C suit. "Small Club" he announced but as he
took CA out of his hand, he accidentally dropped C5 face up on the table for 
all to see. "That card must be played" LHO (the Secretary Bird) hissed. 
"Oh, no" said the Hog, SB's partner on this deal "we could not accept such 
a little accident stand in RR's way. Take it back, RR." The Rabbit took on a 
dignified look and said: "I shall play the cards as is required by the rules." 
The reader will have no problem in verifying, that by this sequence of plays 
the Rabbit had no difficulty in winning the trump played back by SB in 
hand (another card would have made no difference), ruff a H, come back to hand 
with CA and draw the remaining trumps in two rounds on which two Spades in 
dummy disappeared. Since all dummy's Clubs were good at this point, the 
Rabbit had the rest.

He will also have no problem to verify that this could hardly have happened in
any other way, as the whole hand was:


                   S AK65
                   H 3
                   D A84
                   C KQ843
      S QT87                  S 92
      H KJ9                   H QT865
      D T652                  D 93
      C J6                    C T972
                   S J43
                   H A742
                   D KQJ7
                   C A5       S 6D, W leads D2.


"I implicitly trust the Hog," the Rabbit said later. "Since I had only two
clubs and he was prepared to let me take back that C5, I was sure that it must
have been right to play that card. Anyway, it did not cost the contract" ...."

All kidding aside, there are two points about this hand worth to remember.
First of all the choice to play in the 4-3 fit. This is good *only* if you can
ruff with the short trumps, and the trump suit is sufficiently solid. 
(So you can draw them) Both conditions where satisfied in this case and, 
what is more, you *knew* that they were satisfied during the bidding.

The second point is the manoeuvre to duck the first round of clubs, despite
the fact that you have the top three controls. Whenever you have to lose a
trick in a suit at some stage, it is always wise to ask yourself if you could
not do so immediately, while no one can ruff and you still have control of all
the side suits.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Jos van Kan. All rights reserved.