How incorrect plays may occasionally get top boards against experts…
by Dan Romm on
October 14th, 2008
… although I do not recommend them!
Dummy: ♠Jx ♥KJ9x ♦xx ♣J9xxx
Declarer: ♠Axxx ♥A10x ♦AQ ♣AK10x
Contract: 3NT. No adverse bidding.
Open lead ♦J (standard leads).
RHO plays a low diamond and you win the queen. You play ♣AK and the queen drops so you cash your remaining three ♣s in dummy pitching a low ♠ from your hand on the fifth one. LHO pitches two low ♥s and a low ♦; RHO pitches two low ♠s and a low ♦.
Nothing unusual so far, but now the fun begins. You cash your ♥A and continue with the ♥10 upon which LHO shows out, discarding a low ♠ and RHO ducks (a very strange play for who knows what reason)! You now cash your ♠A upon which LHO follows low and RHO plays the queen. You next cash your ♦A, upon which both O’s follow low.
The remaining cards are now
LHO: no ♥s, no ♣s and three unknown cards in ♠s and ♦s.
Dummy: ♠J, ♥KJ.
RHO: ♥Qx and an unknown ♠ or ♦.
Declarer: two low ♠s and a low ♥.
Now what? You ask yourself what is RHO’s unknown card? Answer – it must be the ♠K! It can’t be a low ♦ since RHO would not throw a ♠ from KQ to keep a low ♦. It can’t be the ♦K since RHO would have played it at trick one (or at least would have won the ♥Q and then played it) to prevent me from winning my marked ♦Q when opener might have held the ace (they were playing standard leads, so opener would lead the J holding AJT9 or AJT8 or AJTxx.
So, I naturally now end-played RHO with a ♠ to her king forcing her to lead into dummy’s ♥KJ. Result – RHO’s remaining card WAS the ♦K, so LHO won his ♠K and I took no more tricks for a bottom board! The failure to ever play the ♦K combined with the weird duck of the ♥Q was much too tough for me to figure out.
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There is an error in the writeup. It should say that LHO pitches two low diamonds and a low heart on the clubs, not two low hearts and a low diamond. Sorry about that.
Dan