Hand of the Week #24

This week's featured deal is a declarer play problem from the Tuesday 19 August game. Your partner opens 1, you respond 1NT, partner shows a strong two-suited hand reversing to 2, and you try 3NT, hoping your red-suit queens stand up, rather than trying to make 5.

A Q J T K A J 3 K J T 6 2		5 3 2 Q 9 7 Q 8 7 A 9 5 3

The opening lead is the 5. You have no choice but to put up dummy's king; your right-hand opponent wins the A and continues with the T What now?

You have possible finesse positions in all three other suits. If you find every card where you want it you might win all the rest of the tricks. But if you lose a trick to the wrong person at the wrong time, you will be set, losing all the rest of the heart suit.

How are the hearts going to break? RHO's play of the ace-then-ten is usually from a three-card holding; LHO's lead of the 5, when you haven't seen any of the 432 yet, looks like fourth-best from six. If you win the T with your queen, you will be set if you lose another trick to either opponent. If you let the second heart go and win the third, RHO will be out of hearts, and you can safely take as many finesses into him as you want with no danger of being beaten.

Dealer South NS vul	9 7 6 4 A T 3 K T 4 2 Q 7
A Q J T K A J 3 K J T 6 2		5 3 2 Q 9 7 Q 8 7 A 9 5 3
	K 8 J 8 6 5 4 2 9 6 5 8 4

Looking at the full deal, you can see that the spade finesse succeeds but the diamond finesse fails. And you have three choices of how to play the clubs: cashing the AK hoping the queen falls, finessing through North, or finessing through South. A cautious player seeking to guarantee making 3NT would duck the second heart, win the third, cash the A and then finesse, losing to North as the cards sit, but eliminating any danger of being set if South had Qxx or Qxxx, about a 25% chance.

At matchpoints, you should still duck a heart -- you can't reasonably hope ALL of your finesses will work -- but you might choose to accept that 25% risk of being set in exchange for a chance of an overtrick.

When the hand was actually played, one pair was in 3NT making 7 (how? North must have ducked his A twice!), one pair in 3NT making 4, one pair in 3 making 4, and two pairs going down in 3NT after playing too hastily in hearts.