I have mentioned before that I find Jack's hands provoke some thought. Hers is one from yesterday. I do not have the hand in front of me so I have to hope I have the details sufficiently right.
The uncontested auction starts on my right and goes 1
- 1
- 1
- 4
and so I am onlead against 4
. I can expect dummy to have 4
and 4 !+
, and declarer to have 4
and 4+
.
I am holding (I think this is accurate enough)
AQ
xx (maybe 8x)
QTxxx
Axxx
I am not that fond of any choice but I decided to start with the
. Maybe I'll get lucky.
Dummy comes down with )again I hope for adequate accuracy)
JTxx
AJxx
void
KQTxx
Well, so much for finding partner holding the
K.
Partner follows with the !C3, I am looking at the 2 either in my hand or on the board, we are playing standard so pard has either one club or three.
Worrying that pard might have three clubs I switched to a
. Declarer plays the A, pard follows with a
that might well be encouraging, declarer drops the Q under the A!.
Declarer now runs a
finesse, I win and try anther
. Declarer plays the J, partner K, declarer ruffs. Declarer leads another
, I win and finally work this out. I ay another
, partner ruffs, down 1.
Let's go back to the position after the
lead. Suppose pard has three clubs, giving declarer one. Declarer will have exactly four spades and at most three hearts. It is too late to get a heart even if partner has the K. Declarer can rise with the A and play the
KQ throwing the two hearts. Of course she (I think it was "she") still needs to find ten ricks but assuming she holds the
AK I think it can be done. At any rate, if declarer holds a stiff
she can cash the
KQ whether I do or do not lead another
at T2. But if it is partner with the stiff
another
will set the contract two tricks. I think I should have continued
at T2. We beat it one anyway, but why settle for one when you can get it down two?
This was a discussion hand so I mentioned that after my heart switch and declarer's spade lead from dummy, partner could have started a high-low signal with he spade spots. This has nothing to do with udca, you can find it in old Goren books on play: High-low in trumps shows a three card holding in trump and the ability (and desire) to ruff something somewhere. Here it would clearly be for a club ruff.
So there is a lot to be said about this hand. I know before I even lead that partner has three spades. But I don't know about the ruff. I worked it out eventually, but I think I could have worked it out immediately, for down 2. And partner could have given the ruff signal with a trump hi-lo, but it was already too late for down two, I had to continue with a
at T2 for down 2.
There were a couple of other hands from yesterdays session where defense was front and center. A good group of hands.
