Two favorite tips applied

My learning style is such that I am aided by tips.  Two of my favorite bridge tips apply to the hand below, taken from a club game of Monday morning, November 26.

Let’s say that as West you arrive at a contract of 3NT, with no opposing bidding.  My favored auction would be a simple one: 1♦-1♥, 2♣-3NT, all pass.

 

 

 

In my club game, there are many very good players.  However, your opponents on this board are a pair that usually finishes with a score around the 45% range.  You should not count on them to play totally ridiculously, but, by the same token, they are unlikely, especially on defense, to take a view of a complex hand as a whole but rather to play a hand suit-by-suit following some general principles (second hand low, third hand high, etc.) that suffice for easy hands.

You receive a lead of the ♣4.  You duck in dummy, South plays the six and you win with the ♣9.  You believe that the lead is from AJ74.

One of my favorite tips came from a book by Danny Kleinman.  As I recall the tip, Danny asked rhetorically “why do experts win more tricks at notrump than non-experts?” and answered by saying “because they attack the suits with the most trick potential and not just their longest or best suits”.  My application of Danny’s tip is to calculate the increment between the developable tricks in a suit and the top tricks in a suit.  All else being equal (yes, that is a big “if”, because a learned declarer will also be concerned with issues such as how many tricks can the defenders win, which defender is the danger hand, transportation, etc.), declarer should consider attacking the suit with the largest increment.

You know that hearts is the suit you least want to attack and you apply the increment calculation tip to the other three suits.  In spades, you have no top tricks and can develop somewhere between two and three tricks, depending mostly upon the position of the ♠A and the split of the spade suit.  Let’s say that spades is +2+.  In diamonds, you have two top tricks, and can surely develop at least one more, given that you can force an entry to dummy with the ♣K.  You might even emerge with five diamond tricks, if Qxx is in the slot.  Let’s say that diamonds is +1+.  In clubs, you have won Trick 1 and so the “top tricks” are one.  If your read of the club suit is correct, you will be able to develop three more easily with a finesse against the ♣J.  Let’s say that clubs are +3.

While you are strongly considering clubs as the suit to attack, you consider peripheral issues.  You know that hearts is the suit the opponents should attack, but then you remember a second favorite tip.  I can’t attribute this tip, probably because it is so universal.  The tip is “consider the hand not only from the lens of what you can see, but also from the lens of what the opponents can see”.  Stated more pithily, the opponents cannot see through the backs of the cards; what is important to them is the picture of the hand that is created for them.  Why is this tip relevant?  Because, while you can see that either opponent would be smart to attack hearts, that is not so clear to the opponents, especially to North.  For all North knows, leading hearts might be the way for declarer to get a free finesse that he cannot otherwise take.  And, you complete your thought, it is to North that you will be losing the ♣A.

Now fully satisfied that clubs are the suit to attack, you lead the ♣Q.  Quite wrongly, but not surprisingly given your assessment of North’s bridge skills, North takes the ♣Q with the ♣A, probably figuring out that otherwise his ♣A will be capturing only a small card.  South pitches a small heart.  Of course, had North correctly held off on the second round of clubs, you could reassess because then a third round of clubs won by the ace and a red suit return would be distinctly unwelcomed.

Now North pauses to think.  Yes, pausing is something he should have done before winning the ♣A.  He is now likely thinking that leading hearts can be dangerous if declarer holds something like ♥AQ or ♥AKJ, that diamonds in dummy certainly look unattractive, and that there are no tricks to develop in clubs.  Therefore, he leads a spade. 

This is great news for you as declarer, because spades is the next suit you want to develop.  Now you see the value of dummy’s ♠9.  By playing that card now, you are in effect finessing against a possible ♠T of North.  Indeed the ♠9 forces the ♠A of South and you now have three spade tricks coming.

Finally, someone attacks hearts.  Upon winning the ♠A, South plays back the ♥K.  You now have all the tricks but one, as you have lost two black aces, and you have coming four clubs, the top two diamonds, the ♥A, and three spades for ten tricks.  So, it must be right to win the ♥A right now and play winners to see if someone is subjected to pressure. 

You take the proven club finesse, run the club suit (you pitch two hearts, and South pitches one of each suit while North pitches a heart) and then spades, each opponent following to the second round.  As you prepare to play the ♠K, pitching the ♦T from East, this is the position:

Spades split 3-3, with South, who had already pitched one spade, pitching a diamond.  You note no particular angst from South (as well as no diamond discards from North).  Backing your judgment, you finesse the ♦J.  It wins and you take eleven tricks for 10 mps out of possible 11.

 

The defense was far from best, but you notice that the two tips helped you toward a near top board.  You concluded that clubs was the best suit for you to attack and you realized that North would experience difficulty divining that a heart switch was the best suit for his side to attack.