Saying too Much
My wife and I try to communicate openly and honestly about any decisions we're considering. That's why when she has the option to play bridge, her favorite partner is... her grandfather.
While her grandfather is an excellent choice, I think what my wife really wants is to avoid me communicating my open and honest thoughts on her bridge decision making.
It's important that we know what we're looking for in a bridge partner, and there are many ways good life partners might make for terrible bridge partners.
My wife is happy to play with her grandfather against me and my mother on the condition that I don't say anything related to her choices of bids or play. I think this arrangement is eminently reasonable. This is definitely not a deal that she declared and, even if it were, this article would in no way be a criticism of the line of play she took.
You hold:
AKQ76 
A 
J52 
10982.
Auction:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pass | 1 | |
| Pass | 1NT | Pass | 2* |
| Dbl | 2 | Pass | 4 |
| All Pass |
* New Minor Forcing
The Auction:
We have 14 HCP and a five-card spade suit. As soon as partner opens the bidding, our job is to ensure that we reach a game. That said, many players make the mistake of bidding an immediate 2. While that would get us to game, it would conceal our spade suit. With big hands we want to bid naturally. Yes, we'll have to be careful to continue to make forcing bids, but we can do that. Start with 1.
. While that would get us to game, it would conceal our spade suit. With big hands we want to bid naturally. Yes, we'll have to be careful to continue to make forcing bids, but we can do that. Start with 1.After North rebids 1NT, we could jump to 3NT, but might miss a 5-3 spade fit. We can still use New Minor Forcing after 1-1-1NT (by us). West doubles our 2 bid for the lead. Partner bids 2 and we can now jump to 4 with a fit.
-1-1NT (by us). West doubles our 2 bid for the lead. Partner bids 2 and we can now jump to 4 with a fit.The Play
West leads the 9.
9.| Vul:EW Dlr: W | 532 QJ1087 A97 A6 |
| Lead: 9 | |
| AKQ76 A J52 10982 |
The lead should immediately strike us as fishy. Why lead dummy’s suit? Why didn’t the leader try the suit they doubled for lead? What’s the plan?
We’re going to win this in our hand per force, but we might as well try to get East to cover by playing the Q. You never know when the opponents will choose to help you out. East plays low.
Q. You never know when the opponents will choose to help you out. East plays low.You should have a plan before drawing trumps. You start by counting two diamond losers and three club losers. If you want to ruff your club losers, you shouldn’t draw all of your trumps.
On this deal, though, it’s more promising to attack the heart suit. The lead must be a singleton. You “know” that East has the king. This would be a truly bizarre lead from K9xx. It would be merely weird from 9x.
We can cross to dummy and take a ruffing finesse against East. Then, if East covers, ruff, go back to dummy and enjoy the other three hearts to discard some of your many minor suit losers. You will end up taking five spade tricks, four heart tricks, and two aces for 11 tricks.
Plan in place, you play two rounds of trump and East shows out on the second round. How does your plan change?
As with all declarer play problems, I suppose, this qualifies a trick question. Your plan remains the same. You need to draw the trump before trying to take advantage of the heart suit. Generally, we will will leave the opponent's high trump outstanding, but here we are about to play a bunch of winners and can not afford to have West ruff. Play a third AND a fourth trump.
When West wins, they’ll try a minor. Win the ace and take the ruffing finesse as planned. You’ll only take 10 tricks now, but that’s enough for me.
What happens if you follow the “general rule”? If you play three rounds of trump and then cross to dummy with an ace to take the ruffing finesse, imagine East does not cover it. West can ruff and knock out dummy’s other entry. You’ll have only pitched one of your many losers.
Full deal:
| Vul:EW Dlr: W | 532 QJ1087 A97 A6 | |
| 10984 9 1063 KQ753 | J K65432 KQ84 J4 | |
| AKQ76 A J52 10982 |
Final thoughts:
This is an interesting lead problem. The 9 is as unattractive as a singleton gets; dummy is known to have hearts length, and West potentially has natural trump trick (as is the case here). That said, it's still a singleton and we like leading singletons generally and there's no other lead that looks very attractive single dummy (without peeking at all four hands). As declarer, your opponents will sometimes help you out if you're able to take advantage.