A Challenging End Play

 

Today, we’ll look at just the last 5 tricks from a hand I played recently. By the end of the hand both the East player and the South player (declarer) knew what the other held based on the previous play. The contract is 4 diamonds, doubled. South needs to take 2 more tricks to make the contract. Conversely, East needs to take 4 of the last 5 tricks to set the contract. South is on lead. North and West will be discarding on every trick. Their play doesn’t matter.

West ♠ AK ♥ - ♦ KJT ♣ -
	South ♠ - ♥ - ♦ Q2 ♣ AKQ

Before reading on, think about how South should play for the best chance to take 2 more tricks. Then, think about how West should play for the best chance to take 4 more tricks. Whose chances do you like better?

…<Think now>…

 

 

If South leads a small trump, West will take it with the ten, pull the Q of trump with the K and take the rest of the tricks. Clearly, that isn’t a good play. Leading the Q of trump is no better. West will take the K, pull the last trump and take the rest. That leaves a club lead as the only reasonable choice for South.

Now, what should West do? If West discards a spade on the club, South will continue leading clubs until West is forced to ruff. That leaves West with the KJ of trumps and South with the Q2. They each get one more trick. West only gets 2 tricks, but needs 4. That’s no good. West must ruff the club. Now, what does West lead back?

It actually doesn’t matter. The key play was to ruff the first club. Now, West can lead a spade and if South refuses to ruff, West takes the spades and cashes the K of trump to set the contract. If South ruffs, she is left with just the singleton Q of trumps. West can ruff the club return, pull the last trump and cash his spades.

Leading a trump works, also. West can cash the K of trump and return a trump to the Q. Then, he ruffs the club return with his remaining trump and cashes his winning spade.

Reverses

Today, we’ll look at reverses in the bidding. A reverse is when a player bids two suits in an order that requires her partner to bid at the three level if he wants to take his partner back to her first suit. An example would be (opponents pass at every opportunity)

Sally: 1 Heart

Norm: 2 Clubs

Sally: 2 Spades

 

Sally’s second bid is a reverse. It requires Norm to bid at the 3 level if he prefers hearts to spades. To put her partner in this difficult position, Sally needs a strong opening hand—at least 16 points. Sally is also showing longer hearts than spades by her bid order. With 5-5 in the bid suits, she would start with the higher ranking suit. 

A player doesn’t ordinarily plan to make a reverse. It usually happens that a player would like to show her second suit, and she happens to have enough strength to do it.

Reverses are easier to understand with some examples.

Sally ♠ AT64 ♥ AKJ52 ♦ A7 ♣ T5

Sally makes a normal opening bid of 1 heart. Her partner Norm responds with 2 clubs. Norm implies that he doesn’t have 4 cards in spades since he skipped over them to bid clubs. With a weaker opening hand, Sally would assume that Norm doesn’t have a 4-card club suit and rebid with 2NT. However, with 16 points, she can show her spades. Maybe Norm has 5 or even 6 clubs and skipped over a 4-card spade suit to show his club length. Sally goes ahead and bids 2 spades—a reverse.

Norm has shown at least 10 points by bidding a 2-over-1 response, and Sally’s bid shows at least 16 points, so this bidding sequence should be considered a game force. Let’s look at Norm’s hand.

Norm
♠ Q52
♥ 93
♦ KQ5
♣ A8763

 

Sally has asked Norm to pick between spades and hearts. Norm knows that Sally has only promised 5 hearts and 4 spades. He doesn’t like either choice. He bids 2NT, knowing that Sally will bid on to game. She might have some extra length to show in one of her suits, or she might be happy with NT.

When Sally hears the NT bid, she has a pretty good picture of Norm’s hand. He doesn’t have 4 cards in spades or 3 in hearts, or else he would have supported her at his second turn. No trump looks pretty good. She takes him on to 3NT.

Now, let’s keep the same hand for Sally, but give Norm this one:

Norm
♠ Q52
♥ Q93
♦ KQ
♣ A8763

 

Norm has 13 HCP plus 1 point in distribution. He has adequate trump support for Sally’s hearts but he is too strong to give a single raise (6-9 points) or a double raise (10-12 points) at his first response.  He expects to be in a game contract but he doesn’t need to make a game-forcing bid at this point. He just bids a new suit to force his partner to bid one more time. As before, he bids 2 clubs.

Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades. Norm prefers to be in hearts. As before, his 2-over-1 response combined with Sally’s reverse lets both partners know that they have enough for game. Neither player knows an upper limit for their partner’s strength, though. Norm pauses to consider if there might be enough strength for a slam.

His 14 points would need to be combined with 19 from his partner to get to a small slam. Sally might be that strong, but with 20+ points she would have made a jump shift at her second bid by bidding 3 spades. Norm decides it is unlikely that they have a slam. He places the contract by bidding 4 hearts.

Let’s try one more hand for Norm.

Norm
♠ 9532
♥ 93
♦ KQ
♣ AQ763

 

Norm would ordinarily bid his 4-card spade suit, but his club suit is so much stronger, he decides to skip over the spades and show his clubs. There is a risk of missing a 4-4 spade fit, but bidding clubs is probably the right choice. Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades. As in the last example, Norm reasons that slam is unlikely. He is pleased that they have found a 4-4 major suit fit and bids 4 spades.

Now, let’s change Sally’s holding a bit.

Sally
♠ AT764
♥ AKJT52
♦ K
♣ T

 

Sally’s hearts are longer than her spades, so she opens 1 heart as before. Norm holds

Norm
♠ 953
♥ 93
♦ Q2
♣ AJ763

 

Norm is not strong enough to make a 2-over-1 response in clubs, so he bids 1NT.

Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades.

Norm considers passing 2 spades. It’s not forcing, and he has not shown enough strength for the players to know that there is enough for game. However, he realizes that his partner chose to bid again when she could have passed and that she could have a few more than 16 points. He also knows that Sally knows that he doesn’t have 4 cards in spades, or else he would have bid 1 spade instead of 1 NT at his first turn. This line of thought leads him to believe that Sally has 5 spades. Also, if she has 5 spades, but chose to bid hearts first, she must have 6 hearts. Either hearts or spades will be an 8-card trump suit. If Norm bids spades, he can count a distribution point for the heart doubleton. Along with one distribution point in diamonds and 7 high-card points, there is enough strength to invite game. Norm bids 3 spades.

Sally has 14 points in high cards (She subtracted one for the singleton king), two in distribution for the 6-card suit, and 2 more for the strong 5-card second suit. That makes 18. She accepts the invitation and bids 4 spades.