A difficult 5 diamond contract

 

Today we’ll look at a hand that was bid and played much differently in real life.

Norm is the dealer and holds

Norm ♠ K3 ♥ 63 ♦ AJ3 ♣ KJ8643

He has 12 points in high cards plus 2 in distribution for the long clubs. He opens 1 club. The opponents pass at every opportunity.

Norm’s partner Sally holds

Sally ♠ AJT97 ♥ AJ ♦ KT874 ♣ 2

Sally has 13 points in high cards plus a few more in distribution. She wants to be in game. With two 5-card suits and enough strength to bid them both, it is better to bid the higher-ranking suit first. That will make it easier for her partner to show his preference after her rebid. She doesn’t need to show her strength, yet. Any new suit bid by the responder is forcing for one round. She bids 1 spade.

Norm just has a minimum opening hand. If he had hearts stopped he might bid 1 NT, but he doesn’t. He can’t support Sally’s spades with just 2 cards. She might have just 4 little ones. He makes a minimum rebid 2 clubs, showing at least 5 cards in length.

Sally continues with her plan of showing her second suit by bidding 2 diamonds. Again, she doesn’t have to show her strength, yet. She has bid another new suit. As responder, that bid is forcing for one round.

Now, Norm is in kind of a tight spot. He can reason that Sally has at least 5 spades since with 4-4 in diamonds and spades, she would bid the diamonds first. She might be 5-4 in spades and diamonds. He doesn’t have enough length in either of Sally’s suits to guarantee an eight-card trump fit. He could rebid his clubs, again, but a misfit is possible. It might be better to hope that Sally is 5-5 in her suits. Her bidding is asking him to make a choice between those two. No trump is looking scarier still since Sally has bid two suits that are not hearts. Norm is forced to bid. He crosses his fingers and bids 3 diamonds.

Sally is happy with the diamond bid. Now, she needs to decide whether they have a shot at game. It takes 28 points to make a minor suit game. Her partner hasn’t promised anything more than a minimum 13. Sally has 13 points in high cards, and can count a distribution point for the 5^th diamond and another point or two for the second suit. That should be enough for game. She bids 5 diamonds. Everyone passes.

Walt is on lead. He holds

Walt ♠ Q82 ♥ K95 ♦ Q952 ♣ Q75

With 4 trumps, Walt would like to force Sally to ruff in her hand to weaken her trump holding. The way to do that is to lead the suit that he expects to be the longest between him and his partner. His partner has been silent, so that is no help. The opponents have not mentioned hearts, so that seems to be a logical choice. Walt isn’t happy about leading away from his king. It might give declarer a free finesse. Still, if his partner holds the ace or queen it won’t do any damage. He leads the 5 of hearts.

Now, Sally makes a plan.

Dummy ♠ K3 ♥ 63 ♦ AJ3 ♣ KJ8643

Declarer ♠ AJT97 ♥ AJ ♦ KT874 ♣ 2

She’s got a loser in clubs and one in hearts. She can’t afford any more. Unfortunately, she might also lose a trick in diamonds and one in spades. She can finesse both suits, but that only gives her a 25% chance of making the contract. This is going to be difficult.

She plays a small heart from dummy and Edie plays the queen. Sally takes the ace. Sally might be able to avoid a spade loser by cashing two rounds and ruffing one in dummy. That works if the spades break 3-3. That’s less than a 50% chance. The finesse is better. Since Sally won’t be ruffing in dummy, she sets out to pull trump. Here, she can finesse for the queen in either direction. She has no clue as to who holds the queen. It is just a guess. Since she is in her hand, she tries the finesse that way. She leads a small diamond toward the board. Walt plays the 2 and Sally plays the jack from the board. It holds. Now, she just needs a 3-2 break in diamonds to avoid a diamond loser. She plays the ace from dummy and Edie shows out. Well, there is no way to avoid losing the queen of diamonds, now.

There might be a way to avoid a heart loser, though. If Sally can discard a heart in dummy before losing the lead, she still has a diamond in dummy to ruff the jack of hearts. This plan requires Edie to hold the queen and fewer than 4 spades. It is better than nothing.

Sally is on the board and cashes the king of spades. Both players follow suit. Now, she leads the small spade for the finesse. In the actual hand, Walt holds the queen and the finesse loses. He cashes his king of hearts and eventually wins a trump and Edie wins the ace of clubs—down 2.

Let’s say the finesse holds. Now what is the plan? Sally will cash the ace of spades and hope that the queen falls. Or, if Edie started with Qx of spades, she would have to play the queen on the second round and Sally takes the ace. In either case, Sally discards a heart from dummy on the third spade. If Walt started with just 2 spades, the contract is sunk. Edie will still hold a winning spade and only one trump in dummy.

Let’s continue on with the happy version of the hand. Sally leads the ace of spades. Walt follows suit. Sally dumps the small heart from dummy, and Edie drops the queen of spades.

Now, Sally leads her small heart and ruffs it with the small diamond in dummy. Now, the hand looks like this:

Dummy ♠ - ♥ - ♦ - ♣ KJ8643

Declarer ♠ 97 ♥ - ♦ KT8 ♣ 2

Walt still holds the Q9 of diamonds. Sally hasn’t lost any tricks, yet. She leads the king of clubs and Edie takes the ace. Now, Edie would like to force Sally to ruff. She leads a heart. Sally can only afford to lose one more trick, and that is going to be a diamond. She is forced to ruff. She plays the 8 of diamonds. If Walt is also out of hearts at this point, he can overruff, but that is no problem. That is the only trump trick he gets. If he returns the queen of trump, Sally takes the king and her hand is good. If he returns a club, Sally can ruff with the ten and take Walt’s queen of trump with his king. Again, her hand is good.

If Walt still has a heart or chooses not to overruff, he will still hold the Q9 of trump to Sally’s KT. Now, Sally cannot lead trump, or else Walt will take his queen and lead back a club. Sally will need ruff with her last trump and Walt can take his last trump by ruffing a spade.

Instead, Sally must keep leading her good spades until Walt ruffs. At that point, she will still hold the KT of trump over Walt’s now singleton queen. She can ruff Walt’s return and pull his last trump to set up the remaining spades.

If Walt continues to refuse to ruff in, Sally will hold the KT of trump as her last two cards, and Walt will hold the Q9. Sally can cash her king of trump and give Walt his queen. She makes her contract.

That was hard. Wasn’t it?