04.03.10
Plan Your Play
Again, I must apologize for my long absence. Health issues have kept me away from the computer for a while (it is hard to type when you can’t see). I will try to be more regular. Also, I will begin posting articles on my main website soon, now that I can see again.
The biggest fault in declarer play is the failure to plan out the play and allow for contingencies. Here is a cute hand, you are vulnerable, opponents are not. You hold the following hand:
S: KJT832
H: void
D: AK54
C: K42
The bidding goes:
1C (partner) – 4H (RHO) – 6S (me – no I am not going to justify the bid, that is not the point here) – 7H (LHO)
7S (partner, who is never bashful).
Dummy comes down with the following hand:
S: AQ74
H: J7
D: J6
C: AQ765
Much better than I have any right to expect.
Opening lead is the 2 of hearts. Before you read on, plan the play.
If you trump the opening lead and draw more than 1 round of trump (actually 2 is okay if you stay in your hand),you blew it. Under ordinary circumstances, you would spades to be 2-1, hearts probably 8-3 on the auction, diamonds to be 3-2, and clubs to be 3-2. At least those are the most likely distributions. But what if the distributions are worse? Well, they are, and it is important to plan for that.
First what losers do you have? You have no spade losers, 2 heart losers, which you can trump, 2 diamond losers, and anywhere from 0 to 2 club losers. If everything behaves, you can draw trump in 2 rounds, run the clubs, assuming they are 3-2, and either pitch the diamonds on the clubs or trump the 2 losing diamonds. If the trump don’t break, you can still trump 1 diamond and rely on the clubs being no worse than 4-1 so you can pitch a diamond on a club. So can you still draw all three trump? NO! What if the clubs are 5-0? I know that is not a good chance, but it is a chance, so can you protect against it. The answer is yes, if the diamonds are no worse than 5-2. If the clubs are 5-0 and the diamonds 6-1 or 7-0, you are doomed if the hand with the short diamonds has the long trump. since you have fewer diamonds than clubs, that means the opponents have more diamonds than clubs. That means a great chance of a 5-2 diamond split, or better, so I will protect against the bad club break and hope the diamonds are 5-2 or better.
I trump the first heart low in my hand. I now play the K of spades from my hand. Bad news! The person who bid 4H has 3 spades!! So I know place 8 hearts and 3 spades in that hand, leaving 2 more cards. I am liking this less and less. I play the A of diamonds, abandoning trumps for a minute. They both follow. Now the moment of truth. Do I play for 5-0 clubs and 5-2 diamonds or 4-1 clubs and 6-1 diamonds. I recommend playing the K of diamonds, holding your breath. If you do, both opponents follow on this hand. If you play a club, RHO trumps! This means LHO has 5 clubs and if you pull trump, you cannot set up the clubs and can only get rid of 1 diamond loser, for down 1. If you play the second diamond, you can now trump a third diamond high. Trump dummy’s second heart your hand, trump your last diamond high. Now play your last trump from dummy, ending in your hand, and finish pulling trump. You are now left with 3 club tricks and trump, making 7.
In actuality, I was tired and unfocused, so I did not think the hand through. I assumed normal breaks and did not take precautions against bad breaks, so I went down 1. Had I been focused and thinking, I would probably have worked out the winning line of play.
This was at imps. At the other table, they were in 4S making 7. Oh well! We still won the match, but I will be kicking myself over this hand for a while.
