A Classy piece of Play

[OliverC]

Throw-ins are sometimes easy to spot and execute, and you can be fairly certain of the lie of the cards. Other times it is much harder. I was the Dummy on this really nice piece of Declarer play in a recent Teams Match which had me paired up with ZsK, a turkish gentlemen, who showed his metal on this hand against good defence and deceptive carding by Opps:

Game All, Dealer South

South (Dummy)
  10863
  J953
  2
  AQ106

North
  AKJ754
  K62
  7
  K83

Bidding
South     West     North     East
No           No         1         2
3 (1)     4        X            No
No           5        No          No
5          All Pass

I must confess, Declarer's shortage in Diamonds was a disappointment when my hand went down as Dummy, as I was expecting more Diamonds and fewer cards in the round suits. ZsK said after that he in turn was expecting at least 2 small Diamonds in my hand and maybe a Heart shortage. East led the Ace of Diamonds (West playing the 10 to ask for a switch, which duly came when East switched to a small Heart at trick 2.

Declarer tried the 9 from Dummy and West expertly inserted the 10. In with the King, Declarer ran 4 rounds of trumps, then the Ace King of Clubs, then his last 2 trumps. East had 2 Spades and then discarded Diamonds and West discarded Diamonds all the way after following to 1 trump.

Everyone followed to the AK of Clubs, East with the 2 then the 9, and West with the 4 and 5. On the last two Spades, East threw the 6 and Queen of Diamonds, while West discarded the King and then the Ace. Dummy threw 2 small Hearts. This was the end position:

South (Dummy)
  -
  J
  -
  Q10

North
  -
  62
  -
  8

This was the end position after the last Spade was played. Most people would play a Club at this point, but I feel that is ignoring part of the bidding: West's 4 bid must be showing a reasonable hand, at this vulnerability. East has already shown up with AQ and the Queen, and East with 5 Diamonds to the King, a singleton Spade and the Ace and 10 of Hearts. The question is (1) Where are the Queen and where is the Jack of Diamonds (which was the last Diamond that hadn't been played) and (2) Are the Clubs 3-3 or 4-2?

West was trying to make Declarer believe he had started with A10x, KJ1098x, and Jxx, but crucially, West had not discarded a small Heart at any stage, only the Ace on the very last Spade. If West really started with A10x in Hearts, they would not have inserted the 10 at trick 2, but would have taken the Ace and returned a Heart in case Partner had led from Kxx.

Declarer worked this out and at trick 11 he exited with a Heart to Dummy's Jack. West won the Queen but now had to lead a Club into Dummy's Q10. Bravo!

I'd like to say that this earned a worthy game swing, but although the contract was the identical at the other table, Declarer was not remotely tested, since East's opening lead was the 9, which set up 4 Club tricks for Declarer by simply covering with the 10 in Dummy. With the AQ10 onside, they couldn't go wrong thereafter and so it was a push.

[kenberg]

I agree, this was very well done by both sides. An interesting feature is that both defenders know that declarer started with a stiff diamond. If he had held 2, clearly he would have ruffed one of them . So they are free to toss all of their diamonds. Clearly neither can toss a club without helping declarer, and a heart pitch on declarer's left would probably clarify things for him also. So E can just pitch diamonds. W has a tougher time of it, he did his best, but declarer worked it out. Congratulations all around.

[kenberg]

Thinking about it a little more, this is a place where it might have been better for W to go up with the A at T2 and return the T. This play would be fully consistent with W holding three clubs and !Tx of , in which case declarer should go up with the K and later toss his third on the long . 

So it would give declarer an early guess. Moreover, since this is a likely play for any defender who actually held three clubs. the fact that W did not do so ups the odds that he holds a guard.

But this took a bit to think about, I still say well done to both to everyone.