Oct 11 2009
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Lance and i are playing in the Raleigh sectional Swiss and are near the top of the pack at the lunch break. We draw a solid A team. The first half of the match is competitive – no bad or abnormal results. We beat them in a couple of partscores, which is usually a good sign. And then finally an interesting hand arose.
Red on white, partner opens a 15-17 notrump. With Axx Jxxx T KJ8xx I choose to use puppet stayman in case partner has five spades, but we end in thrump.
 Axx
|
 |
| xx
|
Jxxx
T
KJ8xxThey start with the QS. Lance ducked and they continued with the JS; he ducked again and they cleared the spades, Lance pitching a diamond. If spades are 4-4, there are eight top tricks – four clubs, a spade, a heart and two diamonds. All he needs is one red suit finesse.
To cater to ATxx of clubs, he leads the KC and everyone follows low. Now a club to the Queen, and leftie pitches a high heart. A third round of clubs forces the Ace, leftie completing an echo in hearts. Rightie cashes the KS and leftie follows. The curse of Scotland hits the table.
Lance went into the tank. The opponents are playing standard signals, and leftie has signaled for a heart. But rightie didn’t lead one. Everything has been played in tempo, no signals there. Is leftie being an honest citizen with his heart signal? Lance is known to have a strong NT, and the only card seen out of his hand is the QC. If rightie has the KH, he knows his parter has 2 or 3 points, and they are probably not in hearts, since he would not pitch two hearts from Qxxx. So a diamond lead would be natural. But. If rightie has the QD, then he knows his partner has 3 or 4 points. If he thinks partner’s points are in hearts, as signaled, he could just lead a heart, but Lance might take that as a signal that the heart finesse is off, and he would have to resort to the working diamond finesse.
This is what bridge at high levels turns into – rock, paper, scissors. When players can make deceptive plays based on the fact that they know that you know what they know, it’s just a guess.
Lance opted to believe leftie and give credit to rightie for underleading the diamond, and took the diamond hook. Losing. Down one. And that set the tone for the rest of our afternoon, as we didn’t win another match.
The hand was much less interesting at the other table, as declarer screwed herself and pitched a club on the third round of spades. Oops. They of course ducked two rounds of clubs, and she had to conceded a diamond also.