The Right Cards

By Eddie Kantar Eddie Kantar

Courtesy of KantarBridge.com

N
North
A7532
A104
K6
J98
 
S
South (you)
Q9
KJ875
AQJ852
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
1
2
2
Pass
21
Pass
3
Pass
42
Pass
4
Pass
53
Pass
6
All Pass
 
 
 
(1) Not the kind of suit you like to rebid, but North has no second choice
(2) A heart raise at this point (direct raise of a second suit) shows four hearts with a likely six spades
(3) Looks like the right hand (fitting honors in partner’s long suits), facing eleven red cards.

Opening lead:  2. East plays the  A. Plan the play.

Solution

You have a spade loser and a possible heart loser; however, your spade loser can be ruffed in dummy!  All you need is a 3-2 trump break.  Ruff the opening lead, play the ace-king of hearts, and assuming no queen has appeared and the suit divided 3-2, start playing diamonds discarding spades from dummy.  Whether an opponent trumps in or not, you can discard four spades from dummy and eventually ruff your Q in dummy.

The full deal:

 
N
North
A7532
A104
K6
J98
 
W
West
KJ86
Q32
104
10752
 
E
East
104
96
973
AKQ654
 
S
South
Q9
KJ875
AQJ852
 

THE BOTTOM LINE

With high honors in partner’s long suits, bid aggressively.

Finesses in the trump suit can be an optical illusion when a trump is needed in dummy to ruff a loser in dummy’s long suit!  Of course this presupposes that you can rid dummy of enough cards in that long suit on your own long side suit.

When partner leads a suit in which you have the AKQ and dummy has length in the suit, play the the ace to the first trick, not the queen. If declarer ruffs, partner will know you have the AKQ.  If the ace lives, continue with the queen.  If declarer ruffs, partner will know you started with the AKQ.  By playing the ace first, you do not give away the strength of your suit.  The original play of the queen (which shows the AKQ unless partner has underled the ace!) makes it easier for the declarer to place the other missing honor cards.