Would you believe it? by Jos van Kan. You're playing at your local club in the pairs' contest with an expert. Up to now you are doing fine and you are going into the next round against one of the club's lesser talents. The very first board you get, in first seat, white against red, is the hand of a lifetime: S AK H K7 D AKQ5 C AKJT5 You are playing standardish and you open 2C, the strongest bid in your system. After a pass your partner bids 2D, which really does not mean anything except that he does not have a good suit of his own. RHO now livens things up with a call of 4S. What do you bid? Although you probably can make 4NT (for which partner needs either round Q or DJ) it seems fair enough to double with an eye on the vulnerability and the quality of your opponent. This silences everyone. You lead DK and dummy shows: S -- H A65 D J762 C 987642 Partner throws the 9 showing an even number and declarer the T. You believe this card and continue with CK. Partner contributes the 3 and declarer ruffs. Declarer's next card is SQ which you perforce win. Picture declarer's hand. How many spades? How many hearts? Is there a particular holding that you should worry about? Declarer has mucho Spades, at least 8, but quite possibly 9. It is very probable that partner holds 4 Diamonds and declarer one. The other possibility would be that partner held two, but that would give him 6 or 7 Hearts and he might have bid those. So that makes declarer 8-4-1-0 or 9-3-1-0 and there is certainly something to worry about. Especially if declarer has the latter hand with H QJT the contract is going to be made!! Another thing to worry about is what you are going to do if al those 9 spades will be played. Which 3 cards will you keep? So how do you continue? Although it seems harmless to continue with a high diamond, this will give the contract away if declarer's heart suit is as good as QJx. For you will be put on lead again with your second spade and cannot play anything but a second club, removing partner's CQ. Declarer ruffs and continues with the S parade. On the ultimate spade you will have to discard in this position: (Dummy) S -- H A6 D J C 9 (You) S -- H K7 D Q C J You are squeezed in 3 suits and have to give declarer his 10th trick. The best discard is a small H, since declarer may misread the position, or his heart suit may not be as good as QJx. But you could have avoided this predicament with a bit of foresight in trick 3, when in with the first trump trick. Do you see how? Cash your second trump immediately and play a second high diamond. Declarer has to ruff this and now partner still has a club guard. So on the run of the Spades you can let go of all your clubs. Partner discards all of his Diamonds and 10 3 2 of Hearts. In the following ending declarer leads HQ: (DUMMY) S -- H A6 D -- C J (You) S -- H K7 D Q C -- Do you cover? Why (not)? Partner's last three cards are two Hearts and CQ. If he holds HJ we must cover, for down 2, but if he does not covering will cost the contract, since now declarer will make the last two tricks with HJx. The answer lies in partner's HT discard. If holding HJ he could miss the T he also could (and should) have discarded HJ instead of the T. Put differently, the T discard tends to *deny* the possession of the J. So you don't cover. Down 1. Would you believe it? The full deal: S -- H A65 D J762 C 987642 S AK S 72 H K7 H T9832 D AKQ5 D 9843 C AKJT5 C Q3 S QJT986543 H QJ4 D T C -- As it was 4NT would have been the jackpot. +200 wasn't too bad, however. There were 3 -790's that you beat and a couple of minor suit games that also didn't make. Nobody found 4NT. Copyright (c) 1997 by Jos van Kan. All rights reserved.