Austria must not be my country
On Board 3 of this morning’s club game, partner and I conduct a normal-sounding auction to 3NT.
The ♣Q is led and ducked to my king. I play a diamond to the king, winning, and the ♦9 losing to South’s ace, with North having followed suit to both rounds. South leads back the ♣8 and North wins the ace and continues a third round of clubs, my winning the ♣J as South chooses to pitch the last defensive diamond.
With two clubs, four diamonds, and three top tricks in the majors, I have 3NT in the bag. But, with South known to have eight major suit cards and North known to have four major suit cards, should I settle for nine?
At matchpoints, I think not. And, so long as I am going with the apparent 2:1 odds that a finesse of the ♠J will win a tenth trick, why not play for an eleventh, available if South holds not only the ♠Q, but also at least four spades and the ♥K?
I play for the Vienna Coup, by playing a heart to the ace, followed by a diamond back to my hand. South is discarding quite slowly, and so I am hopeful that I might make all the rest of the tricks, eleven in all. On the last three diamonds, South finally discards three hearts (while North discards three clubs). Alas, none of those hearts is the king, and so there will not be eleven tricks in this hand; that is, the Vienna Coup has not operated and Austria must await for a later visit. Yet, the spade finesse still looks to me like a 2:1 favorite for my tenth trick. I take the spade finesse.
Down one, the whole hand being:
I wonder if, against non-exceptional competition, I should have been more suspicious of the failure of North to have thrown a spade on the run of the diamonds.
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Postscript: I just checked the club website for the results on this hand, which was played 16 times. Only one or two pairs scored ten tricks in notrump, which is how many you would score if cashing out nine tricks and then being rewarded with winning a third spade when the spade queen falls doubleton. Two pairs went down in 3NT and three pairs made nine tricks in notrump.
I don’t get it. But I wish I had just taken the tricks I had coming.
I like how you played it. Didn’t work out best, but what the hey.
Maybe the pairs that ended with 10 tricks cashed A,K of spades with the intention to lead up to the jack for the 10th trick.
This line is quite safe but establishes usually only 1 overtrick, but:
if you play apade A/K before cashing the last 3 diamonds, you have 2 overtricks if south has Txxx, Kxxx, Axx, Qx) because the vienna coup works now.
Not a bad line I think, considering some pairs don’t reach 3NT.
Leon, just to clarify when you are cashing the HA for the Vienna coup, I think the sequence you are suggesting is this: club won, diamond won, diamond lost, club lost, club won (so far, same as at table), two high spades won (and felling queen), NOW the HA, followed by two more diamond winners … possible only because of the questionable decision of West to have won the second round of diamonds rather than the third round), reaching this three card end position, with the last diamond about to be played:
……………S Jx
……………H x
S Tx
H K
……………S x
……………H Q
……………D x
That’s pretty neat, too. I am not sure what is best at matchpoints. Both lines do best when LHO has both the HK and spade length. The line taken at the table gains when SQ is with length; the line you suggest gains when SQ is with shortness, but assures the contract.
I was quite surprised that 3NT was not a more popular contract.