Help Stupid Partner, Episode 2

My friend Steve liked to say, "When I'm your partner, the secret to this game is Help Stupid Partner." Here's a classic situation that came up on Monday evening.

Matchpoints

Vulnerable: N-S

Dealer: West

You are East, holding  ♠ Q 8  ♥ 7 6 4  ♦ K 8 7 5  ♣ A 10 9 4   The auction proceeds

West	North	East (you)	South
Pass Pass All pass	Pass 1 ♠	Pass Pass	1 ♥ 4 ♥

North
♠ A J 7 6 5 ♥ 5 ♦ J 9 6 3 2   ♣ 7 5
	East (you)
	♠ Q 8 ♥ 7 6 4 ♦ K 8 7 5 ♣ A 10 9 4

Partner leads the ♦Q, declarer plays the 2 from dummy. Your play?

ANSWER:  Play the ♦5, showing suit preference for clubs. With the ♦J showing in dummy, partner’s lead is an obvious singleton; she’s hoping for a diamond ruff. Your mission is to tell her that you have a club entry in your hand.

THE PRINCIPLE: When continuing the suit is clearly not an option, your play is a suit preference signal.  A high card shows preference for the higher-ranking suit, a low card indicates the lower-ranking suit. In this case, you want to tell partner about the ♣A  – the lower-ranking of the other two non-trump suits – so play your lowest diamond. 

Note that if the ♦J was not showing in dummy, you wouldn't know that partner led a singleton. In that case, it would be an attitude situation, and you would have played the ♦8: encouraging, suggesting the ♦K or ♦A.

The full deal (hands rotated from their original positions):

	North
	♠ A J 7 6 5 ♥ 5 ♦ J 9 6 3 2   ♣ 7 5
West		East (you)
♠ 10 9 4 2    ♥ J 9 ♦ Q ♣ K J 8 6 3 2		♠ Q 8 ♥ 7 6 4 ♦ K 8 7 5 ♣ A 10 9 4
	South
	♠ K 3 ♥ A K Q 10 8 3 2 ♦ A 10 4  ♣ Q

Alas, your play doesn't matter on this hand; declarer draws trumps and partner never gets a diamond ruff. But it might matter the next time around, so be ready!

Counting to eleven

With thirteen cards in each suit it’s always important to count to 13. Sometimes I mess up a hand by mistakenly quitting at twelve. But eleven can be a useful number…

North

♠ Q 7 ♥ Q 6 5 4 ♦ A J 10 9   ♣ J 10 3

South (You)

♠ A K 9 8 ♥ K 3 ♦ Q 8 4  ♣ K 7 4 2

You	Partner
1 NT 2 ♠	2 ♣ 3 NT

After a routine auction, you are declarer in 3NT. West leads the ♣6. You play dummy’s  J, East follows with the 8 and you the 2. How many more club tricks can you take?

ANSWER:  One, but only if you lead low twice from your hand. West gets two club tricks before you get yours. There’s no time for that!  West is marked with the ♣ A Q 9, and maybe the 5 as well.

THE PRINCIPLE:  When a lead appears to be fourth-best, use the Rule of Eleven to assess the rest of the suit. Subtract the card led  –  the six, in this case  –  from eleven to find out how many other higher cards are in the other three hands. So (11 – 6) = 5 cards that are higher than the card led. You have 4 of them – the J 10 in dummy, K 7 in your hand – and East played the 8. All five cards are accounted for, so West must have the remaining high clubs. West led fourth best from A Q 9 6, or maybe A Q 9 6 5. East’s play of the 8 looks a lot like a singleton, giving West A Q 9 6 5 originally; but note that an expert East will play the 8 from doubleton 8 5.

The Rule of Eleven works for the defense too! East can do the same calculation: (11 – 6) = 5 cards higher than the 6 in her hand, dummy, and declarer. East can see the J 10 in dummy, the 8 in her hand, and thus know that declarer started with two cards higher than the 6.

So the club suit is a waste of your time, you'll need to find the other eight tricks elsewhere.  And if you care to stick around for more even though my five minutes are up, here's a more difficult problem...

Now that you know the club suit is a waste of your time, can you make 3NT with the ♦K on your right? Board 24 on Monday evening, 3NT was down one at every table. At the time I thought it was makeable by setting up the fourth spade, but on closer review that doesn't work unless one of the defenders carelessly discards a spade.

The full deal (hands rotated)

	North
	♠ Q 7 ♥ Q 6 5 4 ♦ A J 10 9   ♣ J 10 3
West		East
♠ J 6 3   ♥ 9 8 2 ♦ 7 3 ♣ A Q 9 6 5		♠ 10 5 4 2 ♥ A J 10 7 ♦ K 6 5 2 ♣ 8
	South (you)
	♠ A K 9 8 ♥ K 3 ♦ Q 8 4  ♣ K 7 4 2

Contract: 3NT

Opening lead: ♣6

Looking at all four hands, there is indeed a way to always make 3NT, but it wasn't obvious to me. Your first best option is picking up the diamond suit, so

• heart to your king
• lose the diamond finesse (darn!)
• win the diamond or spade return in dummy (East doesn't dare return a heart)
• play the remaining diamonds, discarding clubs from your hand
• play the remaining spades, discarding clubs from dummy. East wins the fourth round with the ♠10

	North
	♠ -- ♥ Q 6 5  ♦ --   ♣ --
West		East (on lead)
♠ --   ♥ 9 ♦ --  ♣ A Q		♠ -- ♥ A J 7 ♦ --  ♣ --
	South (you)
	♠ -- ♥ 3 ♦ --   ♣ K 7

East is end-played and must give you a heart trick, making three. East could have broken up the endplay by ditching the ♠10 on the third round of spades, but that just gives you a fourth spade trick instead. Leading a heart at trick two seems dangerous compared to playing two rounds of spades ending in your hand. It took me an hour to figure this out at home. If you have an analysis for why to take this line of play at the table – without seeing all four hands – I'd love to hear it.

Visions of grandeur

Continuing with our monster six-five hand… matchpoints, not vulnerable.

♠ A K J x x    ♥ x x   ♦ --   ♣ A K Q J 10 x

You	Partner
1 ♣ 2 ♠ 3 ♠ 4 ♠ ?	1 ♥ 2 NT 4 ♦ 5 ♥

You showed a strong hand with six-five distribution. Partner perked up by bidding 4 ♦,  a cue-bid showing the ace of diamonds and implying support for spades. The diamond ace doesn’t do much for your hand, though. Your 4 ♠ call is ambiguous as either a sign-off or a cue-bid for the ace of spades; however partner interprets it is fine with you. Partner forges ahead, showing the heart ace with her 5 ♥ call.

Cool, we have all the aces! Partner has implied three-card spade support, and has at least two clubs for her earlier NT bid. You can count six club tricks and two red aces. If partner holds the Q♠, you can almost always rely on five spade tricks. If partner doesn’t have the Q♠, you still have a reasonable chance for four spade tricks, and even five spade tricks about a third of the time (a 3-2 split with the missing queen on your right). So, it’s your call: five, six or seven? Clubs, spades, or something else?

ANSWER:  Bid 7 ♣, though 7 ♠ is a close second choice. At this point in the auction I don’t know of a way to ask partner about the Q♠; you’ll have to just make up your mind and place the contract. If she has the queen (at least a 3/8 chance) it should be easy to make 7. If she doesn’t have the queen (at worst a 5/8 chance) you still have at least a 50-50 chance with a finesse.

THE PRINCIPLE: At matchpoints, bid a small slam (six of something) if it has at least a 50-50 chance of making. For a grand slam, you want at least a 67% chance. At IMP scoring (duplicate teams), it’s usually best to set your standards a little higher; at IMPs you avoid bidding grand slams unless you can count 13 tricks.

WHY NOT 7 ♠? My opinion goes this way: Partner denied a four-card spade holding, and promised at least two clubs. She might have three or even four clubs, giving you a nine- or ten-card club suit. The potentially better fit in clubs could help protect against a bad spade split by ruffing spade losers in dummy. Also, if you have 9 or 10 clubs between the two hands, there is an increasing chance (5% or 11%) that your right hand opponent is void in clubs; in that case, she’ll make a Lightner double to request a club lead for a ruff, down one right out of the chute. Though you could have a similar problem in the spade suit with clubs as trump, the chances of the 5-0 wrong-side spade split is only about 2%.