It would sometimes be nice if one had an almost limitless supply of trumps. It may surprise some of you to know that it is sometimes possible to increase the number of trumps you were originally dealt. If you think that's a joke, I assure you it's not (well just a little LOL). Take this hand:
You are North. It's EW Game and East is the Dealer. You and Partner are playing Precision
South (Dummy)
98742
Q4
J864
K10
North (You) AQ103
1062
AK95
A6
Bidding (Opps silent throughout)
South NorthNo 1
(1)1
(2) 1NT
(3)2
(4) 2
(5)All Pass
(1) 16+ any shape except 4441
(2) 0-7 any shape
(3) 16-18 balanced
(4) Transfer to
(5) Although we play super-accepts of transfers to Spades and maximum
and with good 4-card support, I think this North hand qualifies (7 Controls, 4432 shape), so I think 3
(a cue, our way of super-accepting) would be better here, and now South might well bid game.
So anyway, you're in the lowly contract of 2
. East leads the
3. What thoughts are going through your head?
.
.
.
Initially, you should be thinking along the following lines: Losers: I can afford to lose 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and 1 Diamond and still make my 8 tricks. On the other hand, if West has
Kx and the Diamond Queen is dropping, we've missed a good game here, because everyone will be making 11 tricks.
What can possibly go wrong? Well East having !SKJxx would be a little awkward, especially if West has Q10xx in Diamonds. On the other hand, there's not much I can
do about the Spades if they're 4-0 offside. How about
West having 4 Spades? I can potentially do something about that, but I only have
one easy entry to dummy (the Club King).
The other thing that should be going through your head is that if 10 tricks are easily available, you're going to get a rotten score here, because for sure half the field will be in game, so you almost need to play for a distribution that will make game very hard, but not impossible, because now most of the people in game will probably go off. West having 4 Spades fits the bill 100% (If East has 4 Spades, 4 will inevitably fail and you're already booked for a really good score by stopping low).Cogitations over, rise with the K
at trick 1 and run the 9
if West doesn't cover. As the cards lie on this hand, East shows out and now you can lead a small Spade and just cover whatever West plays. Exit with a Heart. Eventually ruff the 3rd round of Hearts in Dummy and take another marked Spade finesse. Try cashing a Diamond and West drops the singleton Queen. Draw the last trump and run all of the Diamonds.
As it happens on this hand, Partner played a
small Spade to the Queen at trick 2. When East showed out she led a Heart towards the Queen. East took their King and exited with the Club Queen. Declarer led a second Heart to the Queen and West's Ace. West now led the Queen of Diamonds (a fairly obvious singleton). Declare won, ruffed a Heart in Dummy and now led the 9
. West ducked. now another Spade to West's J and Declarer's Ace.
This is where the bit about co-opting some more trumps into your hand comes in. West just has the King pf Spades and some number of Clubs and Hearts left. You have one lower trump left in each hand and 3 Diamonds in each hand (K9x opposite J8x). To retain trump Control, it's simple enough to lead the K
. Whatever West does, he can only make the King of Spades whenever he decides to ruff, and now he's endplayed to give you a ruff 'n' discard. If he doesn't ruff you make your 3 Diamond tricks with the aid of the marked finesse against East.. 10 tricks would have been worth +3 IMPs (Surprisingly few people in game, but all who were were -1 in 4
.
Unfortunately, Partner played a further round of trumps, leaving West to win and cash 3 Club tricks for -1, which was worth -3½ IMPs. Oooops!!
