Aug 01 2010

Weird-Looking Safety Play

podrey @ 7:13 pm

Board 13
North Deals
Both Vul		 ♠ A J 9 5
♥ K 6 3
♦ 6
♣ A K 9 5 4
♠ 2
♥ A J 10 7 5 4
♦ K 10 9 4 3
♣ J
N
W E
S
♠ K 6 4 3
♥ 9 8
♦ A Q 8 7
♣ 8 7 6
♠ Q 10 8 7
♥ Q 2
♦ J 5 2
♣ Q 10 3 2

West North East South
1 ♣ Pass 1 ♠
2 ♥ 4 ♦ Pass 4 ♠
All pass

4 ♠ by South

Partner made an aggressive splinter bid with 4♦. However, he has a good hand, and the ♥K should be pulling its full weight.

West led the ♠2 which was ducked around to my hand. If the spade hook is on i’ll have an easy time of it. If the spade is offside, i should still bring home three spades, five clubs, a heart and a ruff.

From East’s tempo at trick one, i think the spade King is offside. That shouldn’t be a problem, except i might have issues if the trumps are 1-4. How best to handle that?

Let’s see… if i “finesse” another spade, East can win and return a spade. If i try to set up my heart trick at that point, West will win and East might have a diamond entry to lead the last spade, denying me my 10th trick.

So i think it is best to layoff of trumps and set up my heart now. At trick two, i lead the ♥Q. West wins and returns the ♥J. I win the ♥K and East follows. I could take a heart ruff now, but that’s not safe if spades are 1-4. East would eventually win the ♠K and force the dummy with a diamond, setting up a long trump for the bad guys. Similarly, if i duck a diamond now in an attempt to ruff a diamond in dummy, there is a similar peril – West can win and force my closed hand with a heart, and the same danger lurks.

After some study, i come up with the answer – i lead a low spade from dummy towards my hand. A safety play. Looks strange, doesn’t it? If trumps are 3-2 nothing matters, but it turns out this play was necessary, as king-fourth of trumps was offside. East wins the spade and plays diamonds, but now it is safe to ruff in dummy, pull all the trumps and run the clubs.