Bridge: 7 No Trumps baby!

The Game Room
501

Here’s a fun hand I played the other day.

You are in second seat, vul vs. non-vul at IMPs, holding:

98762
AK765
T
J7

RHO passes, you pass, LHO opens 1H. Partner doubles, and RHO bids 2C, non-forcing and natural.

You decide to bid 3S on your 7 loser hand, LHO passes, and partner bids on to 4S. (Yay for being red at IMPs!)

Your LHO leads the King of diamonds (standard defensive leads/carding), and you get this dummy:

AQJ3
J8
J953
KQ4

98762
AK765
T
J7

You follow suit low from both hands, with RHO playing a low diamond as well.

LHO now switches to the Ten of clubs. You play low, and when RHO plays the Ace, you drop the Jack (why not?).

RHO thinks for a bit, then plays a low heart. You win the Ace, and play a spade to the Jack, which RHO wins (LHO follows low), and fires back the Ten of spades (which LHO shows out on - discarding a low heart), forcing you to win in dummy.

Now what?

LHO’s hand is laid out now: 1552 shape, maybe 1561, with the Queen of hearts and at least AK of diamonds. So the hand is ideal for a squeeze, with a bit of dummy reversal added in.

Ruff a diamond in your hand, cross with a trump to dummy (drawing the last trump), ruff another diamond with the last trump in hand, and cash the two clubs and the last trump in dummy.

Dummy’s last three cards are the 3 of spades, the Jack of hearts, and the Jack of diamonds, while you hold the Kxx of hearts in your hand. When you play the 3 of spades, discard a heart, and your LHO, who is down to the Qx of hearts and the top diamond, must either give you the Jack of diamonds in dummy, or discard a heart to let you score the last two hearts in hand.

502

Yeah, for Biotop’s hand, it seems like West can just discard spades and keep the club stopper, since East started with JT and can keep one of them as the spade suit guard. You’d need either dummy’s spades or your own spade spots to be higher than East’s spades for the squeeze to work.

Now, if West started with SIX spades and exactly QJ9 of diamonds and three (or more) clubs, so that East had only a singleton spade to start with, this would be a really cool entry squeeze.

But then you couldn’t draw trumps since that’s too many cards for West to hold.

503

I would have rebid a more conservative 2C, not reverse with 2H or jump to 3C, as IMHO the clubs are not quite good enough to be self-sufficient, and partner could have a very weak hand with long spades. Jumping to 3C on a seven card suit headed by the AJ9 will get you to some really bad 3NT contracts.

I have more sympathy for bidding 2H, but it’s only worth a reverse if you find a fit with partner, and guess what, having a void in partner’s first bid suit is not an encouraging sign of that.

Meanwhile, if partner has a non-minimum hand with 5 spades and 4 hearts, he’ll bid 2H over 2C, and you would go to 4H. Which is apparently what should have happened here?

1C-1S, 2C-2H, 4H-blackwood on the 17 count, blahblahblah, end up 6H in your 4-4 fit and not needing to find Qx doubleton of clubs to make a slam?

504

Awesome! Nicely played!

505

The solution has already been given. East cannot keep a spade stop because s/he only has two. One falls under the ace and the second is ruffed out after North discards two spades on diamonds.

506

Ah, I missed that dummy got to pitch TWO spades on the diamonds. Looking at the two hands upside-down confused me :slight_smile: After I rearranged the two hands properly, I could see it.

So it relies on West having specfically QT9 of diamonds, to set up the 8 of diamonds on the fourth round, and QT doubleton of hearts to be able to draw 2 rounds trumps making the J9 in hand high while consigning East to following suit in diamonds, enabling the spade ruff.

Well, not gonna lie, I didn’t see that one without an explanation.

507

Yup. I got the bit about West holding DQT9, but I completely missed that if he had HQT doubleton as well you don’t need the Heart finesse and can cash your tricks in the right order :frowning:

OTOH I did get robardin’s puzzle above, so maybe there’s some hope left.

508

Here’s another favorite book hand:
West


S: KQ
H: KT9
D: Q643
C: QJ87

North

                S: A76543
                H: J432
                D: K
                C: AK

East


S: VOID
H: 87
D: 9875
C: T965432

                South

                 S: JT982
                 H: AQ65
                 D: AJT2
                 C: VOID

West is dealer and opens 1NT, but the final contract is 6 spades in the South. West leads the King of trumps.

Can South make the small slam?

509

It looks like you just cash KD, AKC and exit with a spade. West is endplayed into giving you an extra trick and entry to the South hand to allow you to take a ruffing finesse in diamonds.

On preview, I see that quoting your post shows the spoilered parts.

510

I don’t see this. Assuming you throw two hearts on the AK of clubs, it leaves you with

North
S: 7654
H: J432

South
S: JT9
H: AQ
D: AJT

with West on lead.
If West leads a heart your problems are over because you win the Q then A and cross-rough. But if West leads a diamond I don’t see how you get rid of the heart loser. A roughing finesse in diamonds does you no good as you can’t throw enough hearts from dummy.

511

Yes. And West will send back a diamond. Down 1.

512

My line works if West has 2 spades and three diamonds because on a diamond return, the queen comes down in three and all the hearts go away. However, peeking at the spoilers, I see that there must be a line to make if West has 4 diamonds. I have not found that yet.

513

Cash KD. Ruff a club. AD discarding heart. JD, covered, ruffed. Ruff another club. 10D discarding a heart. Exit with a spade.

514

Well done!

515

You guys made too hard work of this. Without looking at the spoilers, I covered the lead with dummy’s ace, and saw East’s queen fall under it, leaving me with only one loser, in hearts (two heart losers from my hand discarded on clubs, diamond losers ruffed in dummy). “Put the cards where you need them to make the contract”, right?

:slight_smile:

516

Hey heh. That would be a mighty poor no trump opening bid for West without the spade queen.

517

Leading the singleton trump K against a slam would be even worse as a opening lead

518

Funny thing about this hand - if you are given the problem with xx of clubs instead of AK, 99% of competent declarers would wrap up 12 tricks in about 30 seconds.

519

Of course. You have 15 HCPs in dummy and 12 in hand, not only must E/W be playing ACOL or some other system with a 12-14 1NT opener, he’s marked with every HCP in the deck, except possibly the Jack of clubs.

You have to lose the Queen of spades (and obviously West had KQ tight as he can’t open 1NT with a singleton in any suit), so you endplay him with it.

There are no winners in dummy for your to pitch two hearts in hand on (so that when West were to play a heart to your AQ you have no more losers in the suit), so, you’ll have to discard dummy’s hearts on your diamonds.
Win the Ace of spades, cash King of diamonds, ruff a club to hand, cash the Ace of diamonds pitching a heart. If the Queen falls from West, you’re gin - just play your JT of diamonds pitching hearts from dummy until West ruffs in, and claim.

If the Queen doesn’t fall, play your JT of diamonds pitching hearts unless West covers - then ruff in dummy, ruff a club back to hand, and continue the diamonds, pitching hearts.

If West follows suit to all the diamonds - like he started with Qxxx or Qxxxx of diamonds - you’re also fine. You’ll discard down to a singleton heart in dummy that way, then just cash the Ace of hearts and concede the top trump, dummy’s high.

520

Ha, probably true. Though it wouldn’t be cold - as West might not have the Queen of diamonds then (there would be room for East to hold it).

BTW, it kind of bugs me to see your username in this thread. Can you maybe change it to K643? Thank you. :wink: