Bidding Fast, Then Slow

 

Today, we’ll look at another slam bidding sequence. Sally is the dealer and passes. Walt holds

Walt
♠ KQ7532
♥ KQJ6
♦ J3
♣ 5

That’s 12 points in high cards, but Walt decides to subtract one for not having any aces and having just a doubleton jack in diamonds. Then, he adds 2 distribution points for the 6-card suit and one more for the second suit. That’s 12-1+2+1, 14 points total. It’s clearly enough to open the bidding with 1 spade.

Norm and Sally pass at every opportunity.

Edie finds herself with this strong hand:

Edie
♠ A6
♥ A32
♦ K4
♣ AKQ987

She has 20 HCP plus 2 in distribution for the 5^th and 6^th spades. Twenty-two points combined with her partner’s 13 should make a small slam. They might even have enough for grand slam. The problem is going to be finding a trump suit or choosing to play in NT. She doesn’t have adequate support for her partner’s suit, but she has a strong club suit. No trump looks possible, too. First off, she needs to show her strength. A jump shift by responder shows at least 19 points. It’s forcing to game and is a strong invitation to slam. That sounds like a good choice. She bids 3 clubs.

Walt has just a minimum opening hand, but still…opposite a jump shift, he wonders if a slam is in store. With the bidding already forced to game, there is no hurry. The team needs to find a trump fit if they have one. Edie could easily have 4 cards in hearts. Walt bids 3 hearts. He might want to show his extra length in spades later if he has a chance.

Edie doesn’t like hearts or spades for a trump suit, but her clubs will likely play well in a NT contract. She is worried that Walt will pass if she just bids 3NT, and she wants to be in a small slam, at least. She decides to bid Blackwood to see if her partner has the missing ace. If he has it, she will ask for kings to see if grand slam is possible. She bids 4NT.

Walt shows no aces by bidding 5 clubs.

OK, so grand slam isn’t there, but a small slam should be. Edie bids 6NT and worries a little bit about the diamonds. There is some risk that Walt had a very distributional hand with something like 6-6 in the majors with a singleton and a void in the minors. OK, that is a flaw in the strong jump shift. It uses up a lot of bidding space. Opposite most hands, though, 6NT should play well.

The opening lead is a small diamond--the unbid suit. Edie plans the play:

Dummy
♠ KQ7532
♥ KQJ6
♦ J3
♣ 5

Declarer
♠ A6
♥ A32
♦ K4
♣ AKQ987

Edie’s worry about the diamonds is well founded, but with the lead on her left she will take the king either on the first trick, or later if Norm takes the ace on the first trick. Now, she needs a plan to cash 11 more tricks without losing the lead.

Without jumping through any hoops, she can take the AKQ of spades, the AKQJ of hearts and the AKQ of clubs. That’s 10 tricks. She just needs a 3-2 break in spades or a 3-3 break in clubs to set up the little cards in one of those suits. She can just cash the winners and if one suit breaks badly, she can use the other suit as a backup plan. It’s not 100% guaranteed, but the odds are in her favor.

 

 

Another Slam

Today, we’ll look at another slam. It makes easily as the cards lie. I only found one obscure way that it goes set. Those are good odds.

	Norm ♠ 6 ♥ AKJ ♦ QT65 ♣ AQJT3
Walt ♠ AT7 ♥ T3 ♦ 92 ♣ K98654		Edie ♠ 8532 ♥ 86 ♦ K8743 ♣ 7
	Sally ♠ KQJ9 ♥ Q97542 ♦ AJ ♣ 2

Edie is the dealer. She has next to nothing and passes. Sally has 13 HCP plus 2 distribution points for the 6-card heart suit and 1 more distribution point for the second 4-card suit. She bids 1 heart. Walt briefly considers interfering with a jump in clubs, but decides against it. He passes. Edie and Walt pass at every opportunity from now on.

Norm has support for his partner’s hearts, but with 17 points in high cards and 2 distribution points, he is too strong for a single raise (6-9) or a limit double raise (10-12). If he had an extra trump, he could count 3 points for the singleton. In any case, he has 19 points. That’s enough for a jump shift. He bids 3 clubs. Edie passes.

A jump shift by responder is an invitation to slam. Thirteen points by opener plus 19 by responder is just one point short of the 33 needed for a small slam. There is no upper limit to the jump shift, so the partners should take their time finding their best contract. They are already forced to game.

Sally doesn’t know that Norm has support for her hearts. She also knows that Norm doesn’t know that she has 6. The club bid might suggest playing in no trump, but transportation might be difficult. Sally decides that the best choice is to show her 6-card heart suit. Norm also doesn’t know that Sally has better than a minimum opening bid, but she doesn’t want to rush the bidding. She is sure to get another chance to bid since the jump shift is a game force. She simply rebids her hearts with a 3H bid. Walt passes.

Norm doesn’t know that Sally has extra strength. For all he knows, Sally has a minimum opening hand. He has shown all of his strength with his original jump-shift response. He just needs to show Sally that he has support for her hearts. She can push farther if she has more than a minimum hand. He bids 4H.

Now, Sally adds her 16 points to her partner’s promised 19 and wants to be in slam. If Norm has just a couple more than his promised 19 points, grand slam could be possible. It might be hard to find the grand slam, but she starts by with the Blackwood convention to make sure that they are not off two aces. It’s hard to imagine how that could be, but the information might help to find the grand slam. She bids 4NT.

Norm shows 2 aces by bidding 5H. Well, there goes the grand slam idea. Small slam missing one ace shouldn’t be a problem. Norm’s points have to be somewhere useful. Sally bids 6H and everyone passes.

Walt is on lead.

Walt
♠ AT7
♥ T3
♦ 92
♣ K98654

Some people like to lead aces against slams, but from Walt’s point of view, it might just make the play easier for Sally. Getting a club ruff in his partner’s hand is a possibility after Norm’s initial club bid, but unless Edie is void in clubs, leading away from that king could help the opponents. Norm decides to try a safe lead of the 9 of diamonds.

	Norm ♠ 6 ♥ AKJ ♦ QT65 ♣ AQJT3
Walt ?		Edie ?
	Sally ♠ KQJ9 ♥ Q97542 ♦ AJ ♣ 2

There really isn’t much that Walt could do. The diamond lead gives Sally a free finesse, but she would have played it that way for herself, anyway. Sally plays small from dummy, and Edie holds on to her king, hoping to make a trick with it later. She plays the 3 and Sally takes with the Jack.

Sally has to lose the ace of spades. She needs to have a plan to not lose a second one. It all depends on how the trumps break.

If the trumps break 2-2 Sally can simply pull trump, force out the ace of spades and ruff the 9 of spades in dummy. But what if they don’t?

If Sally pulls two rounds of trump and one opponent fails to follow suit on the second one, she has a problem. She still needs to force out the ace of spades and regain the lead to ruff the losing spade. If the opponent holding the ace also holds the missing trump, that player will lead back the trump, and there goes her plan for ruffing a spade. There is still a club finesse that could yield a club ace to discard the losing spade. Is there a better way?

How about leading the king of spades on the second trick? Now, the opponent with the ace will take it. That happens to be Walt. Walt looks at his 6 clubs and the 5 clubs on the board, and decides to take a chance on his partner being void in clubs. He doesn’t like leading away from his king with the AQ on the board, but with only 2 clubs out, the only time Sally is going to think about playing the queen will be when she holds two little clubs. That leaves Edie with none. Walt leads a small club. Sally plays the ace from dummy. Edie follows suit.

Sally starts by testing against a 4-0 trump break. She leads the ace of trump from dummy. If the trumps break 4-0, she will need all of her big trumps to avoid a trump loser. Play will be difficult, but not impossible. We’ll look at that possibility a little later. As the cards stand, both players follow to the trump lead. Sally can afford another trump lead. She leads the king. Both players follow. Wow! Now it’s easy. The trumps are gone. Sally leads to the ace of diamonds and ruffs the 9 of spades. She can get to her hand by ruffing either a diamond or a club and her hand is good.

Suppose someone showed out on the second round of trumps. Now, Sally needs to stop pulling trump. She needs to get the spade ruff in first. She will know where the missing trump is. If Edie holds it, there is nothing to worry about. Sally can lead a club from the board, intending to ruff in her hand. If Edie ruffs, Sally can simply over ruff.

If Walt holds the missing trump, it is probably still safer to lead a club and ruff it. The only time this loses is if Walt started with a singleton club and three trumps. It’s possible, but the opening lead of the 9 of diamonds looks more likely to be a singleton than the later lead of a small club.

Let’s say the club lead doesn’t get overruffed by Walt. Now Sally leads the 9 of spades to ruff in dummy. There is no chance of an overruff there. The Jack is high.

Let’s say that Edie followed suit to the second club. Sally is on the board and still needs to pull the last trump. Sally needs to get back to her hand. Leading a club, again has a higher risk of being overruffed by Walt. I like leading to the ace of diamonds at this point. Walt might ruff, but we’ll take that chance. Sally takes the ace, Walt follows suit, and Sally pulls the last trump. Her hand is good.

Suppose Edie showed out on the first round of trump. Grrr. Sally will need to watch her entries to the board, and try a ruffing finesse in one of the minor suits. Walt’s lead of a small club suggest that he does not have the king. Sally leads the queen of clubs from dummy intending to discard the 9 of spades if Edie ducks, and ruffing if she covers with the king.

To her great surprise, Edie discards! That crazy Walt led away from his king into the AQ on the board. Sally has to ruff. Now what? She needs all of the trumps on the board to pull trump. There is a good king of clubs to her left. Walt started with 6 clubs, 4 hearts, and at least 1 diamond and 1 spade. That only leaves one card unaccounted for. A ruffing finesse in diamonds would require two more diamonds in Walt’s hand, so that is guaranteed not to work. There’s no hope. Sally’s goose is cooked.

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?

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.

Bad Breaks

Today, we’ll look at a hand that has several chances to make. Declarer’s job is to figure out the plan with the highest chance of success.

Three players pass to Sally who holds  

Sally
♠ 7
♥ 76
♦ AK83
♣ AKQT32

She has 16 points in high cards and can count 2 distribution points for the 5^th and 6^th club plus one more for the second suit. That’s 19 points. She could open 1 club, but her hand will only have 4 losers with reasonable breaks in the minor suits. She decides to open with the artificial strong 2 club bid. If you would prefer to open 1 club with this hand, I wouldn’t criticize you. 

Remember that Sally’s opening 2C bid does not promise anything about clubs.

Walt, sitting to Sally’s left, passes. Sally’s partner holds

Norm
♠ KT52
♥ A32
♦ QJT4
♣ 86

That’s 10 points in high cards, and 1 distribution point for the second suit. Norm wants to make a positive response to the 2C opener. Any suit bid that he makes would imply a 5-card suit. He chooses to respond 2NT. The opponents pass at every opportunity from here on.

Norm’s positive response forces the team to game, and is a strong invitation to investigate slam. Sally isn’t crazy about NT, and she hasn’t said anything about her suits yet. Both players understand that they are going to game, and slam is a possibility. There is no reason to hurry the bidding. They should take their time to find a fit. Sally bids 3 clubs.

Norm doesn’t care for the clubs, even though Sally ought to have 5 of them for her bid. Having already denied a 5-card suit, Norm can show his 4-card suits, hoping to find a 4-4 fit. He should bid them up the line to keep the bidding low. He bids 3 diamonds.

Sally is happy with the 4-4 fit in diamonds. Sure, the 6-card club suit is pretty, but there is a guaranteed diamond fit. She decides that the team will be playing a diamond contract. Next, she needs to figure out whether the team should be in a slam or not. Even a grand slam is possible. Norm has not limited the upper end of his strength. Sally figures that if Norm has one ace, along with his other 4+ points, there should be a reasonable chance for a small slam. Sure, his ace might be the ace of spades and the rest of his points might be in spades and diamonds. That would be bad news. The opponents could take the AK of hearts off the top and set a small slam. It could happen, but that is too pessimistic. Sally bids 4NT, the Blackwood convention to find out how many aces Norm has.

Norm responds 5D showing one ace. Had Norm bid 5H, showing both of the missing aces, Sally might ask for kings to see if a grand slam were possible. But, he didn’t. Sally is satisfied with the 1 ace and bids 6 diamonds. Everyone passes.

 

Edie leads the ace of spades and Norm makes a plan for the hand

	Dummy ♠ 7 ♥ 76 ♦ AK83 ♣ AKQT32
	Norm ♠ KT52 ♥ A32 ♦ QJT4 ♣ 86

It looks pretty good, so far. There shouldn’t be any losers in diamonds unless they break 5-0. Edie’s lead just promoted the K of spades to a winner. Norm will still have 2 spade losers and 2 heart losers in his hand after losing the A of spades. He could try to ruff some spades and hearts in dummy, but that will require getting to his hand several times, and he’ll need to do all that ruffing before pulling trumps. He might be able to avoid ruffing anything if the clubs break 3-2. If that is the case, he can pull trumps, and then discard all of his losers on the clubs. But, what if they don’t break 3-2?

Let’s stop and take a look at the hand from dummy’s point of view. Dummy will lose a trick to the ace of spades and has one heart loser. Clubs might not have any losers. If that is the case, dummy can discard the losing heart on the king of spades, and everything is wonderful. If the clubs don’t break, Norm can ruff a club in his hand and the rest of the clubs will be good. That sounds like a pretty good plan. This idea of thinking of the dummy as the “long hand” and ruffing in declarer’s hand is known as a “dummy reversal.”

Dummy plans to pull trump, run clubs, and discard a heart on the king of spades. Norm is ready to play the small spade from dummy and a small one from his hand. Edie continues with the 4 of clubs, leading around to weakness. Sally plays the ace and Walt follows suit. Sally start her plan by drawing trump. She leads the A and K from dummy, and Walt discards a small spade on the second trump.

Sally can still pull all the trump, but it will take all her trumps to do it. That’s still not a problem if the clubs break 3-2. Unfortunately, by the time Sally finds out that they don’t, all her trumps will be gone. She can’t test them, first, by leading a second trump, because if they break 4-1 and the player with the singleton is the player with the remaining trumps, she will lose a trick to a ruff. Her only choice is to hope for the best in clubs.

She continues pulling trump and leads a second club. Edie uncooperatively discards a heart on the second club, and there is no way for dummy to avoid losing a club. What’s worse is that she won’t be able to take any more clubs even after knocking out the Jack. She doesn’t have any more entries to the board. The contract ends up down 3.

Still, for such a disastrous result to happen, the trumps needed to split 4-1 and the clubs needed to split 4-1. Probability favors getting a 3-2 break in at least one of those suits. It was a good plan. It just didn't work out.

Using All the Information Available

Today we look at a 1 NT hand. We will see how declarer uses all the information that is available to make a brilliant choice for a play at the end of the hand.

Norm is the dealer and bids 1 diamond with this hand:

Norm
♠ J8
♥ T986
♦ AT74
♣ AK8

He has 12 points in high cards and can count one distribution point for the second suit. He has no 5-card major, so he bids his better minor suit.

Edie is sitting to Norm’s left and was surprised that Norm opened the bidding. She holds:

Edie
♠ AK6
♥ A75
♦ KQJ85
♣ 64

Without Norm’s opening bid, she was trying to decide whether to open 1NT or 1 diamond. She has the balanced distribution and the required 15-17 HCP to open 1NT, but she was worried about the worthless doubleton. One diamond is a safer opening bid, and she could jump in diamonds at her next turn to show her strength. Then, Norm goofed up her plan with his opening 1 diamond bid. Now, bidding diamonds is out of the question. Her only alternative to bidding 1NT is to pass. She decides to risk the club trouble and overcall 1NT.

Sally happily passes with this hand:

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

Had there not been the 1NT overcall, Sally would have a demand bid with 6 points opposite her partner’s opening bid. She doesn’t have the required 10 points to show her club suit, therefore she would have responded with 1 spade. The overcall, however, relieves her of her obligation to keep the bidding open for her partner. A free bid over the 15-17 points shown by Edie would need to guarantee that her side had the balance of the strength in the hand. She should probably pass any hand weaker than 10 points. She does.

Walt holds

Walt
♠ T732
♥ K42
♦ 632
♣ J92

With 8 or more points, Walt might look for a 4-4 spade fit with the Stayman convention, but he has only 4 points. He passes.

Norm has just a minimum opening hand and no help from his partner. He passes also.

Sally is on lead against 1NT. She wants to find the strongest combined holding for her side. He first consideration is the suit that her partner bid, but his 1 diamond opening might be based on a 3-card suit, Sally holds only one card there, and the 1NT overcall should have the opener’s suit stopped at least once, preferably twice. Sally needs to look elsewhere for an opening lead.

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

The clubs are longer than the spades, however, Norm indicated that his diamonds were better than his clubs. A spade lead is worth considering, but Sally decides to go with clubs. Having just two honors at the top of the suit, she leads her 4^th highest—the 5.

Now, Edie pauses to make a plan for the hand before playing to the first trick.

Dummy ♠ T732 ♥ K42 ♦ 632 ♣ J92

Declarer ♠ AK6 ♥ A75 ♦ KQJ85 ♣ 64

In no trump, Edie starts by counting how many tricks she can take off the top. Well, with the club lead, that number is zero. She can use the rule of 11 to reason that there are 6 cards outside of Sally’s hand that are bigger than the 5 of clubs. Edie can see 3 of them, so Norm must have 3 clubs bigger than the 5. That’s good. It means that the opponents can run at most 5 tricks in clubs. Let’s suppose that happens and the 6^th trick is either a spade or a heart. Now, Edie can take 4 tricks in spades and hearts. She will need to take 3 more tricks to make the contract. The diamonds look like a good choice. Edie will need to force out the ace of diamonds, probably losing one of her top honors in the process. Then, she will have two good honor cards to cash. If the diamonds break 3-2, her two small diamonds will be set up, and she’ll make an over trick. If they break 4-1, the 4 cards will certainly be in the hand that opened 1 diamond. She might be able to win a trick with a deep finesse. She might not have the luxury of just losing the 4^th diamond trick to set up the little one. If the opponents lead hearts at every opportunity, Edie will be out of heart winners after losing the 4^th heart, and she will lose a bunch of hearts before she can cash her little diamond. Still, it looks like she has a solid plan.

Edie decides to play a small club from dummy. Norm wins with the ace, cashes the King of clubs and returns a small club.  Edie discards a small heart. Sally takes with the Queen and continues to cash her small clubs. Now Edie needs to be careful with her discards. She needs to preserve two small diamonds in dummy in case she needs to try a fancy finesse if there is a bad diamond break. She discards a small heart from dummy. Norm plays a small heart and Edie finds herself in a tight spot. She discards a spade, and plans to discard a small diamond on the next club. There goes one chance for an extra trick in diamonds.

Sally leads her last club. Edie discards a spade. Norm plays a heart, and Edie plays a diamond as planned.

Here is what is left for Edie before Sally leads. Edie hasn’t taken any tricks, yet.

Dummy ♠ T73 ♥ K4 ♦ 632 ♣

Declarer ♠ AK ♥ A7 ♦ KQJ8 ♣

Sally continues with the Queen of hearts. Edie needs to preserve the entry to the board, so she takes with the ace in her hand. Now, she needs to force out the ace of diamonds. She leads the King. Sally follows with her 9. Dummy plays small, and Norm takes the ace. He hopes that he can eventually take the ten of diamonds after the Queen and Jack are played. He decides to take out declarer’s only entry to the board by leading a heart.

The King wins on the board. Now, Edie leads a small diamond from the board and Norm plays the 7. If the diamonds break 3-2, Edie can take the Q and J of diamonds and cash the last diamond. However, if they break 4-1, this play will set up the ten for the opponents. She could, instead, decide to finesse the 8. That play works against a 4-1 break, but loses if Sally started out with the T9 of diamonds. Edie knows that Norm started with at least 3 diamonds based on his opening bid. The only way that the finesse fails is if Norm opened 1 diamond with the A74 of diamonds and the AK8 of clubs. Since Edie was paying such careful attention to the cards that Norm had played and could visualize the hand he started with, she bravely plays the 8 of diamonds on this trick.

The 8 holds. Edie breathes a sigh of relief, and she cashes the rest of her tricks to make 1 NT.