Through the Pack at Glenfield

The Ten of Clubs

Last Updated on 30^th December 2006

When this deal was played by Judith Taylor at Glenfield Bridge Club on 20^th April 2005, there were four scores of –200 achieved in three different ways.
	North ª KQT73 © 87 ¨ QJT § J54	Board 13 Dealer N Game All	One East/West pair had bid two hearts and made three overtricks, another bid three hearts and made two overtricks, while two pairs had defended four spades and defeated it by two tricks. It looked ominous for Judith when her opponents bid to four hearts. South continued to four spades but was doubled. To gain any match points, Judith would need to make nine tricks. East led the nine of diamonds, won by West’s king. West continued with diamonds, Judith won and played a trump. West won the ace and played a third diamond. Judith won, drew the last trump and exited with a heart. The defence won two tricks and the lead was with West. Fearful that Judith had started with ª KQT73 © 873 ¨ QJT § Q5, West tried a third heart. Judith ruffed in hand and discarded me from dummy, losing two hearts, one diamond and a spade to emulate the other two hundreds. The board was played seven times and only two pairs achieved scores other than two hundred to East/West. Top score to North/South went to Jim Wilde and John Morrey, who defended three hearts and found the diamond lead that allows the defence to take three tricks. (Without the diamond lead declarer can set up the clubs to discard two diamonds from hand). Top score to East/West went to Doreen and Len Hillier who bid their game, doubled their opponents when they sacrificed in four spades and led hearts to take the contract two down.
West ª A © AJ52 ¨ K75 § K9762		East ª 86 © KQT43 ¨ 932 § Q83
	South ª J9542 © 96 ¨ A864 § AT

When I was played to trick one at Glenfield Bridge Club on 28^th April 2004, Declarer saw a tempting prospect of an overtrick.
Board 24 Dealer W Love All	North ª 74 © AKT53 ¨ K642 § K7		Mary Bradley passed and Peter Neville opened the North hand one heart. Judith Taylor passed and Tim Glover bid three diamonds. Peter raised to four diamonds. Tim bid four no trumps, Roman Key Card Blackwood, and Peter showed two or five aces (including the king of diamonds as an ace) without the queen of diamonds by bidding five hearts. Tim signed off in six diamonds. Mary led a club and Judith made the hand interesting by playing me. If Judith had played the ace of clubs, all declarer has to do is draw trumps and ruff a spade in dummy for twelve tricks. Tim won the queen and could see a chance of thirteen tricks if hearts divided evenly. He drew trumps and played ace, king of hearts and a heart ruff. When Judith showed out on the third round of hearts, it was all over. He no longer had enough entries to dummy to take a second heart ruff and get back to discard the spade loser on the fifth heart and he eventually lost a spade and a club. How should the hand be played? The best way of combining the chances of making thirteen tricks with the opportunity to make twelve tricks is to cash the ace and queen of diamonds before turning attention to hearts. This allows thirteen tricks to make whenever diamonds are 3-1 or better (90.44%) and hearts are 3-3 (35.53%). This equates to 32.13%. Declarer can recover to make twelve tricks when hearts are 4-2 and the hand with the doubleton heart has the singleton diamond. Although this would have worked, it is only a marginal improvement on 32% for twelve tricks, when the line of ruffing a spade and a club in dummy will provide twelve tricks whenever the diamonds are 3-1 or better (90.44%), spades are 5-3 or better (79.84%) and clubs are 5-3 or better (79.84%). This gives a combined chance of making the slam of 57.65%. Given that it was likely that most pairs would be in three no trumps, the important objective was to make the contract. Accordingly, Tim should have played a club at trick two, allowing Judith her ace. There is then time to ruff the two black losers in dummy before drawing trumps. Indeed, no other pair bid the slam. Two pairs bid five diamonds, making just eleven tricks. The best scores went to those who played in three no trumps. Ten tricks appears to be about par but Ken Skinner & Baerbel Sandhu and John Glover & Ken Moseley made eleven while Jim Wilde & John Morrey topped the lot by making twelve.
West ª QJ3 © QJ76 ¨ T83 § 843		East ª 98652 © 92 ¨ J § AJT62
	South ª AKT © 84 ¨ AQ975 § Q95

On this deal from the match against Blaby B on 18^th December 2002 I played a full part in the play despite my owner having just three cards in my suit while his right hand opponent had no less than eight.
	North ª AT92 © Q864 ¨ KT62 § 9	Dealer North EW Game	South chose to pass, giving east west a clear ride in the auction. My owner opened one diamond, east bid one heart and west rebid one no trump, showing 15-18 points. East bid two clubs, Crowhurst, and, when west bid two diamonds to show a minimum with no more than two hearts and no more than three spades, east jumped to four hearts. South led the ace of clubs and on the next round led a small club enabling me to come into the game. North chose to ruff small to prevent me taking a trick. East overruffed and led a heart to the ace. The nine of hearts was finessed at trick three. East then drew north’s last trump and took the diamond finesse. North won and cashed the ace of spades but east was able to discard two losing spades on the jack of diamonds and the king of clubs to claim his contract. North could have made it more difficult for east by refusing to ruff me. North and east now discard spades and east leads the king of clubs. North and east both discard a second spade. The ace of hearts is cashed and the nine is finessed. East then exits with a spade and north is end played in the red suits. Alternatively north might discard a spade and diamond on tricks two and three. East also discards a spade and a diamond and leads ace of diamonds and then the queen of diamonds to take the ruffing finesse. North covers the queen of diamonds so east ruffs and crosses to the ace of hearts and cashes the jack of diamonds, throwing a spade. East now finesses the nine of hearts, cashes the king of hearts and exits with the ten of hearts. North makes the jack of hearts but now has to lead a spade. If north’s first discard is a diamond east can also throw a diamond. At trick three the ace of diamonds is played. The queen of diamonds is then led, if north covers, it is ruffed and east crosses to the ace of hearts and cashes diamonds throwing a spade. If North ruffs the fourth diamond, east overruffs, cashes the king of hearts and exits with a trump, throwing a diamond from dummy. North has just spades to lead. If he leads the ace, the king will drop south’s queen on the second round. If he leads small east will win the king and exit with a spade. If south wins the trick they will be forced to concede a trick to the king of clubs while if north overtakes, dummy’s jack of spades will win a trick; this is called a Winkle Squeeze. Click here for the end position. Clearly therefore north has no counter to east’s antics. Let the spotlight shift to south. If south had led the queen of spades at either trick one or trick two (and north allows it to run to east’s king) the contract is unmakeable.
West ª J53 © A2 ¨ AQJ83 § KT6		East ª K764 © KT9753 ¨ 97 § Q
	South ª Q8 © J ¨ 54 § AJ975432

The next card is the nine of clubs

The previous card was the jack of clubs