The smell of Swiss success

Two hands from a pretty successful mid-week regional Swiss team finish have stuck in mind.

Do you know your suit combinations?

On the first of the two hands, I was on lead with the ♥A in the midgame defense against the opponents’ 3NT contract.  Declarer having played the hand with little deception, I realized that we needed to take the next four tricks with only the diamond suit offering any chance.  The diamond suit lie:

	Dummy ♠ ♥ ♦ Txxx ♣
Me ♠ ♥ ♦ A8x ♣

What card do you lead?

I played the ♦8, just in case the suit around the table were:

	Dummy ♠ ♥ ♦ Txxx ♣
Me ♠ ♥ ♦ A8x ♣		Partner ♠ ♥ ♦ KJ7x ♣
	Declarer ♠ ♥ ♦ Q9 ♣

If that were the layout, the ♦8 would be won by partner’s king and would fell declarer’s nine.  Then a small diamond return from partner would be topped by declarer’s queen and then my ace.  Finally, my ♦x would be led through dummy’s Tx to partner’s J7 for our third and fourth tricks in that suit.

Interestingly, the same four tricks would result if partner were on lead rather than me.  Partner would start with the ♦K, upon which my hand would unblock the ♦8.  A small diamond next from partner replicates the ending when I was on lead.

The diamond suit was not exactly as I had hoped — the ♦7 and ♦9 were interchanged — so that even beginning with the ♦x would have run the suit, but the welcomed news is that we had four diamond tricks and earned a game swing when my teammate played the hand more deceptively and the need for the diamond underlead at the other table was not so clear as at mine.

My partner on this hand, Steve Rzewski of South Dennis, MA, told me that he once before held the same suit holding and did not then find the lead of the king.  He had been waiting 15 years for a second chance, and then found that it was my hand that was on lead and not his.  Setting the contract was a consolation prize.

Even if Steve rued not having the opportunity to rectify his mistake of 15 years ago on that hand, he shined in declarer play on the second reported hand from the Swiss,  a hand that was creatively bid and well-declared:

North ♠ KQJxx ♥ AKQTx ♦ x ♣ AT

South ♠ xx ♥ xx ♦ KJxxx ♣ QJxx

Third seat opened 1♦ before my hand as North.  I chose to bid 2♦ (Michaels).  Steve advanced to 2♥, and my 4♦! follow up refused to let him off the hook.  He closed the bidding with a 4♥ call.

West led a heart, won in dummy.  The ♠K was led from dummy and West won the ♠A and played a second trump.  Steve drew a third round and found the hearts split 3-3, East with the jack.  Two more rounds of spades disclosed that West began with a doubleton and East with Txxx.

Steve realized that a fourth round of spades would likely be unproductive.  With West likely to have all the remaining high cards for the defense, East could, upon winning the ♠T, continue a diamond to jack and queen for the defense’s third trick.  Now if West continues the ♦A, the ruff could be taken in dummy, but with dummy being locked, a club would be lost at the end for the set.

Instead Steve abandoned (temporarily) the spade suit and led a diamond himself.  The ♦J lost to the queen (defense’s second trick), but West had no good exit:

• a small diamond would be ducked to his king (spade pitch from dummy) and a successful club finesse taken.  Now dummy would be all good cards except for the Trick 13 loss of a small spade: declarer would take five hearts, two spades, one diamond and two clubs, losing only one early trick in each pointed suit and a spade at the end.
• the ♦A would be allowed to win the third trick for the defense, with a spade being pitched from dummy.  Either a diamond or a club next would allow declarer to cash the ♦K for yet another spade pitch and take a winning club finesse for the contract..
• at the table, West led a small club, won by the ♣T in dummy.  A spade was given up (the defense’s third trick), but dummy can win any return and is down to only good cards: he lost only two spades and a diamond.