Safety Play

In the Buchanan Teams last night Ted and I took a bit of a beating. Our one higlight was bidding and making a very poor 6♠ contract:

Ted liked this hand and rebid 3♠, so I thought he must be strong enough to have something in Diamonds so launched into Blackwood, and he showed two keycards without the Queen of trumps. The auction so far was identical at both tables. But whereas my counterpart now signed off in 5♠ I ploughed on and landed partner in 6♠.

We have 7 trump tricks, but only 3 outside winners. There are possiblities in Clubs and Hearts, but how best to combine your chances? I like Ted's line of trying Clubs first (playing the ♣A from dummy if North doesn't cover), then reverting to Hearts. But as you can see everything works so that was a lucky 13 IMPs in.

I gave it back on the hand below:

We reached a good 4♠ contract and the defence begin with the ♦K. I was expecting two rounds of Diamonds then a Club switch, which if I got wrong and the trump finesse failed would be one off. But instead North overtook with the ♦A and returned a Heart, clearly a singleton. I've bags of Heart tricks to come so I just need to draw trumps now avoiding a ruff.

Time for a safety play!

I lead the ♠J from dummy but played the ♠A anyway, to avoid losing to a singleton or doubleton King in South and suffering a Heart ruff. But actually, South was void in trumps! So when I tried to keep drawing them North got back in, crossed to his partner's ♦Q and they got their Heart ruff in the end. I think my line was correct (fails only on this layout, finessing fails if South has Kx or K of trumps), but cost the game. On the other table they played in 5♥ and although a Spade ruff is in theory possible the defence are never likely to find it.

Finally, here's one I got right:

Ted's 2NT rebid showed 15-19, and my 3♣ asked for extra length in Majors. He denied this so I know he has exactly four Hearts and at most three Spades. With my Spade void 3NT might be in trouble, so I removed to 4♥. This is a decent contract, especially when Ted happens to have the ♥QT and got the the ♥J lead. I think 5♣ is even better though, so perhaps I should have bid that.

While following the hand as dummy I was hoping the Club finesse would fail, as that would mean only 8 tricks in 3NT. The other table were in 3NT, and did get a Spade lead, but the defence got in a tangle and declarer came home for a flat board (maybe that's an advantage of 3NT I hadn't considered - how often it makes when it shouldn't!)

Overall we lost the match 32-77