Cross with yourself?

[OliverC]

Here is an illustrative hand my partner played the other day:


NS Game, Dealer East


North
AJ
987652
A106
Q4


South
K10973
A
9754
J86


Bidding
East    South      West     North
1       1             2          2
3       No            No          3
All Pass


West leads Ace and another Club. East wins the King and switches to the King of Hearts. You play a Diamond to the Ace and ruff a Heart (all follow). You cash the Jack of Clubs, chucking a Diamond from Dummy. Now a Diamond towards the 10. West wins the Queen and plays a 3rd round of Hearts. You ruff East's Queen.


The position is now as follows



North
AJ
987
-
-


South
K109
-
97
-


You've won 5 tricks already, Opps 3, so you need 4 of the last 5 tricks to make your contract. Opps probably could have defeated this out of hand by leading trumps early, but they've given you a chance. How do you play?


.
.
.


Only chance for 4 tricks is a cross-ruff. You lead a Diamond and West ruffs in front of you. That surely suggests that West has nothing but trumps left and East started with 1345 shape. You ruff with the Jack of Spades, which holds. What now?


At the table my partner ruffed a Heart with the 10 . West overruffed and returned a Spade to defeat the contract. The truth is, however, that the contract is icy cold: All you need to do is to ruff HIGH in your hand, ruff your last Diamond with the Ace in Dummy and nothing on earth can now prevent you from making 1 trick with the 109 in your hand, as West started with Q8542 and is forced to underruff three times as you make all of your trumps separately.


This theme is repeated on many occasions in different guises, sometimes making your last trump "en passant" when RHO has the boss trump left but you're leading a side-suit from Dummy at trick 12, sometimes, as here, ruffing high to keep the crossruff going and stop a premature lead of the trump suit.


It's a technique and scenario worth keeping an eye open for.

[kenberg]

Yes. It might seem unnatural to not even try to pick up the Q, but there are four certain tricks if you just play it as you say.  And +140 on a 5-2 fit and 19 hcps should be a very good result.

[OliverC]

Yes, +140 would have been worth about 6 IMPs, because several people were going for -300 in a Heart contract and there were very few plus scores for NS. Even 2 should have no chance if West has the table sense to lead Spades at least twice early on to deprive Declarer of any ruffs in Dummy. As it was, 3 -1 was near enough a par score


Partner did well to set up the cross-ruff in the first place, but just didn't think it through well enough. The thing to look for is only missing one trump honour (Q or J) and having the 109 as well, and the ability to cross-ruff in the first place.


On this occasion the critical clue was West's underruff on the 3rd Diamond. That should tell you they started with 5 trumps and East with only 1. It doesn't even matter if East overruffs with the singleton Queen because, critically, they will be unable to return a trump and you will still make the last 4 tricks. What you cannot afford is for West to overruff early in the final sequence before you've made use of both of Dummy's trumps separately.

[kenberg]

Oliver,

I was just re-reading this and I think W was not 5=3=1=4 if the play went as you said. You have W following when a is led to the A and then, later,  W is in with the Q. Maybe 5=3=2=3 ? It would be an aggressive 2 raise!.

This doesn't actually matter to the main point of course. Once W is in with the Q and returns a , declarer can immediately claim 9 tricks against any distribution whatsoever.

It's an interesting question whether W can still set this by returning a trump when he is in with the Q. For this, the exact shape probably matters. I think he should at least give it a try with a trump. The lead just can't work. Well, it did but we shouldn't depend on hexing declarer.

[OliverC]

Sorry, I may have meant East. West was 5323. I tend to swap the hands round so Declarer is always South (it's an OCD thing LOL) and some get confused who is who. Opps hands were:


West          East
Q8542      6
1043        KQJ
QJ            K832
A73          K10952

[kenberg]

That's quite a 2 call but I see his  problem.  I think after partner opened 1 and RHO came in with 1 I might go with 1NT.

Anyway, when W is in with the Q  the situation probably appears pretty hopeless but switching to a trump must be the best bet. Defenders have taken two and a , they need two more. From declarer;s point of view, he has 5 tricks so far, he needs 4 more. They can only come from trumps. Suppose W leads a small at this point (when ni with the Q). As long as declarer plays the J, he survives. It hold the trick, then  ruff a to hand and play a third , W has only trump left and plays one. Declarer takes the A on the board and then leads a heart, pitching his last . W is in and must lead into the KT of trump.  So it's hopeless as long as declarer makes the right choices. Which he probably would.  But, as it went, he didn't. Such is bridge.

I did not notice the slight error in describing the hands since in fact it didn't matter, as the play went.  When W returned the instead of a declarer had   a clear route to four trump tricks and his contract. But as I read it over I saw it.  As you might have noticed, I often find myself correcting my posts.