|
At North Penn, six N-S pairs out of seven found their way to 3NT or five of a minor, all going down! The N-S top went to the only pair that stopped short of game in 3♦. At the other club, Ruth and her favorite partner Minnie Ster had reached 3NT in the auction shown.
After East opened 2♠, Ruth (South) passed and West tried 3♠. Despite holding only three hearts, Ruth advised that she fully approved of Minnie Ster’s double rather than a 4♦ call, since it is much more flexible, giving the partnership the chance to be in 3NT or perhaps even defend 3♠ doubled. Ruth did in fact contemplate passing the double, which would have been a rousing success, but instead attempted 3NT.
The defenders attacked the spade suit immediately, revealing that the preemptor’s suit was headed by K-Q-J. There were eight top tricks - five diamonds and three other Aces - and all declarer had to do was finesse through whichever King resided in West’s hand. Since quite a few people went down, Ruth asked some other declarers how they played the board.
Plan 1 – The Coin Toss: This person ducked a couple of spades while tossing two clubs from dummy, played a diamond to the board and one back to his Ace and, surprisingly, West showed out pitching a low heart. Then came the coin toss or was it eeny, meeny, miny, moe? He decided that the heart pitch could mean West was guarding clubs, so he took the club hook and went down two.
I smiled and said that I watched that very thing at my table with declarer commenting glumly: “It was 50-50 and I felt like I was choosing between Door #1 and Door #2 and wound up with the boobie prize – losing to the stiff King, no less!” Ruth suggested that if it were 50-50, she would have taken the heart hook since if that finesse worked you would collect three heart tricks, whereas a successful club play would only get you two. Yet no one finessed in hearts.
Plan 2 – The Flinch Plan: This South also won the third spade while pitching clubs and then took advantage of being in her hand, cleverly leading the ♥J hoping it would get covered by West or that at the very least West would hesitate. When her LHO, who did indeed have the ♥K, failed to do either, declarer popped the Ace, returned to her hand with a diamond and confidently took the losing club hook – going down three this time, since the defense also cashed the ♥K.
Plan 3 - Rabbi Ruth’s Two Bites of the Apple Plan: Ruth remarked that “the Flinch Plan was a good try but not good enough,” as she had a better idea. “First of all, I ducked the spade only once so that I would not have to pitch twice from dummy, just one club. If I took a losing finesse, my RHO with all the spades would be getting in anyway so what was the point of the hold up?
“My tentative plan was to cash the ♣A first in an attempt drop the stiff King, since we held eight clubs. If that failed, I would return to my hand to finesse in hearts. If my RHO had a stiff diamond, however, he would be very unlikely to have a stiff ♣K, too.
“Thus, I cashed two diamonds on board, not at all concerned about blocking the suit. I had plenty of entries to get back to dummy later. If the 2♠ bidder showed out in diamonds, he would have to make a couple of pitches by the time I returned to my hand – perhaps I would learn something. When, unexpectedly, it was West who showed out, pitching a heart, that meant East had six spades and four diamonds, leaving just three more. Wouldn’t it be nice to try dropping a stiff King before taking a finesse – aren’t two bites of the apple better than one?”
“Maybe not at the Garden of Eden, Rabbi,” was all I could add.
Ruth ignored me and continued: “West had a total of nine hearts and clubs and his most likely distribution probability-wise happens to be 5-4 rather than say 6-3 or 7-2. But why the heart pitch? If my opponent was 5-4, it would make sense to pitch from the longer suit (hearts) in order to preserve his four card club holding. If West was indeed 3=5=1=4, East had just one club. Being the rabbi that everyone thinks I am, it was time to apply The Rabbi’s Rule. Yes, I cashed the ♣A and lo and behold the King dropped.”
“Making three,” I noted, “nicely done.”
Ruth’s reply: “Heck no, making five! Would you preempt with KQJxxx Kx 10xxx K? I’m pretty confident you would start at the one level. West surely held the ♥K. So of course I returned to my hand to take the heart finesse, which was my plan all along, but by this time I was 99 and 44-100ths percent sure it would succeed!”
Postmortem: Ruth not only got the top score in her club game, but +660 was worth 93% in the Common Game. Interestingly, anyone choosing to take the heart finesse using Plan 1 or Plan 2 would be entitled to a bonus. When they finally cashed the ♣A, dropping the King, they too would benefit from The Rabbi’s Rule, making five, yet very few did.
| 
