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Deal of the Week
by Mitch Snyder
Blueprint
I was attending a practice game when one of the players called me over to ask what to do. She was in fourth seat and held:
-----AK5 9762 AQJ A53
The auction had gone:
-----1C - P – P - DBL
-----P - 1S - P - ?
I asked if she knew how to use a takeout double to show a big 1 suited hand or a big notrump hand. No, she was a new player and hadn’t learned that yet.
The method is this:
If you double and then bid notrump you are showing a hand with 1 to 3 more HCPs than an immediate notrump bid would show.
If you double and then bid a new suit you should have a 6 card suit and 17+ points. When I first started playing my mentor called this kind of hand a ‘rock crusher’.
Before going on I want to take a moment to discuss notrump bids in the passout seat. If you have already passed once such as:
-----P - 1D - P - P
-----?
a 1NT bid is weak, like 11-14.
But if you are not a passed hand such as:
-----1D - P - P - ?
you can play 1NT as weak or strong. You could easily be looking at a 15+ notrump hand. There is no right or wrong way to play it, but you should discuss it with your partner. If you do play it strong, play it stronger than 15-17. 16-18 for example. Also, you should play ‘systems on’ (Stayman, transfers, etc) over a strong balancing notrump.
Over a weak notrump there is no need to play your systems. Just play natural, that way responder can bid any 5 card suit to play at the 2 level, keeping the auction from getting too high.
Back to the hand, after explaining much of this at the table, West bid 1NT and East raised to 3.
------------------------------QT96
------------------------------AJ53
------------------------------K3
------------------------------Q42
----------------AK5-----------------------J872
----------------9762----------------------Q
----------------AQJ----------------------.976
----------------A53-----------------------KJT76
------------------------------43
------------------------------KT84
------------------------------T8542
------------------------------98
The play: this does not represent the actual play at the table
North led a low heart, Q from dummy, K from south.
Declarer paused before playing to the first trick. She counted 25 HCPs in her and dummy’s hands plus 3 in south as the king of hearts was face up on the table. She can be almost certain that the other 12 HCPs are in the north.
Counting tricks, she has 2 spades and a diamond for sure. The club finesse is obviously working and 4 tricks are available and maybe a fifth if north doesn’t have 5 clubs. If clubs come in there are 8 total tricks. Where is number nine? The diamond finesse is guaranteed to fail and there is no spade finesse to take. But maybe the queen is doubleton.
When play continued, south led her lowest heart, the 4, telling partner she had 3 hearts remaining in her hand at that point. A high heart would show 2. This lead concept when returning partner’s suit is called ‘remaining count’. North knowing hearts were 4-4 cashed her A-J and led a fourth hoping partner had the 10. South won the 10 and switched to a diamond.
Declarer played the diamond ace, maybe the king is a singleton. No luck. Now she went to work on the clubs, she can try the spades later, besides they might be needed to get back to her hand.
She needs to plan to take 2 club finesses in case north has 4 of them and maintain communication with the dummy. At trick 6 she led a club to dummy’s 10, then a club back to her ace, a club to the J and cashed the ace and the last club.
All that’s left is to cash the spades and hope the Q falls. It doesn’t. 3NT is down one.
In a duplicate some pairs would play in 2NT, some in 3 depending on their bidding agreements. 3NT is a slightly aggressive contract but not a bad contract. Sometimes it makes and then you would have an excellent score.
Advanced play:
If south doesn’t switch to a diamond at trick 5, or north wins the 4th heart and can’t exit safely with a diamond, a squeeze will develop. Follow the line above but cash the AK of spades, turning the J into a ‘threat’ card, before taking the second club finesse creating this position:
------------------------------QT96
------------------------------AJ53
------------------------------K3
------------------------------Q42
----------------AK5-----------------------J872
----------------9762----------------------Q
----------------AQJ---------------------.976
----------------A53-----------------------KJT76
------------------------------43
------------------------------KT84
------------------------------T8542
------------------------------98
When you cash the last club north has to give up the spade queen making the jack good or unguard the diamond king.
Nice play on the diamond switch, South!
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