Entries are the lifeline of bridge, Part II

The first hand of a recent regional KO offered some scary bidding, followed by some play that slightly missed the mark.

Dealer: N Vul: All	North ♠   7xxx  ♥   KJ9 ♦   ATxx  ♣   T9
West ♠   AQT9xx ♥   Qx ♦   xx ♣   xxx		East ♠   K ♥   ATxx ♦   Jxx ♣   Qxxxx
	South ♠   Jx ♥   8xxx ♦   KQxx ♣   AKJ

South opened a weak (12-14) notrump in third chair.  West overcalled 2♣, alerted.  EW were playing Cappelletti, where 2♣ shows an undisclosed one-suiter.  East duly relayed to 2♦, West showed her suit by bidding 2♠ and two passes followed to South.  Playing cooperative doubles (see Phillip Martin’s article https://sites.google.com/site/psmartinsite/Home/bridge-articles/countering-notrump-interference), South doubled, showing a doubleton spade.

Here North had no attractive option after the double: while his side had 20-22 HCP and the opponents were known to be in a seven card trump fit, four spades to the seven did not bode well for defending 2♠X.  But then, bidding on was not attractive either.  For all North knew, his side might have no eight card fit;  and the probable 6-1 spade split might foretell that trumps would fail to split well no matter what three level contract lay ahead.

North decided to pass, albeit with reservations.  (I recommend adoption of cooperative doubles, but you have to have a long-term memory to survive the occasional pitfalls; just try to remember as you lose IMPs by incurring the occasional -670 or the like, that producing the hopefully more frequent +200/300/500 and knowing when to compete for a plus score on offense wins IMPs, too.)

North chose to lead the ♣T.  South won the ♣J and led back the ♦K.  North encouraged and a small diamond was next played to North’s ace.  A third diamond was ruffed by declarer.

Declarer now played a second round of clubs, ducked by North and East and won by South’s ♣K.  South returned a heart and West considered how to play the split tenace of the ♥T and ♥Q.  It didn’t matter because North held the ♥KJ.  At the table declarer played a small heart and North’s ♥J forced the ace.  Declarer next played the ♠K and then a heart to the Q and K.

Declarer might have hoped that placing North on lead would force North to either exit with a spade from Jxx and lose a trump trick or exit with a heart and provide an entry to the otherwise unreachable ♥T for a club pitch.  (I think this is a reasonable and thoughtful play for avoiding -500, as North might have been dealt an original distribution of 4=4=3=2 opposite his partner’s 2=3=5=3.)  But the cards as dealt provided no such benefit:

 

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠   7xx ♥   9 ♦   T ♣   —
West ♠   AQT9 ♥   ♦   ♣   x		East ♠   ♥   Tx  ♦   ♣   Qxx
	South ♠   J ♥   xx ♦   Q ♣   A

North exited with a spade and handlocked declarer who had to lose a club at the end for +200 for the defense.

Both the defense and the declarer missed opportunities.

Had declarer left the ♠K in dummy, the six-card end position, with North on lead with the ♥K, would be as follows:

 

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠   7xxx ♥   9 ♦   T ♣   —
West ♠   AQT9x ♥   ♦   ♣   x		East ♠   K ♥   Tx ♦   ♣   Qxx
	South ♠   Jx ♥   xx ♦   Q ♣   A

No matter what card North plays, dummy’s ♥T provides a discard for declarer’s losing club.  Thanks to the ♠J being in the short hand, declarer can, after the ♠K and ♥T are played from dummy, ruff a rounded card with the ♠9 or ♠T and draw trumps to make the doubled contract.

But the defense could have done better, too.  The defense had to attack one dummy entry before winning a second round of clubs and attack the other dummy entry when next in lead.

After cashing the second diamond winner, North (alas, I was North) should have then led a trump forcing the ♠K from dummy.  Declarer can duck a club, which South must win.  Now a heart return by South attacks dummy’s other entry and declarer will be unable to rid herself of the third losing club.

So … the hand represents a familiar theme, about entries being the lifeline of bridge:  Declarer needed, on the actual lie of the cards, to preserve dummy’s two entries and the defenders needed to attack dummy’s two entries.  When each side missed the mark, the mistakes cancelled out and the contract failed by one trick, +200 to the defense.