You reach a non-vulnerable 3NT in an uncontested auction (better not disclosed) after partner opens the bidding and are greeted by the lead of ♣ T. You discard a heart and your RHO plays ♣ Q. Plan the play.
Dummy
♠ Q94
♥ K9743
♦ A8753
♣ —
You
♠ A87532
♥ Q
♦ KQJ
♣ KJ3
GIB wins the first trick, cashes two top diamonds from hand, and, noticing the 3–2 break, overtakes the last diamond with ♦ A. Then GIB cashes the two good diamonds. LHO discards two clubs, while RHO discards two hearts and then a club. Now what?
The right play, according to GIB, is now to lead ♠ Q and run it, which—witnesses to this deal might remember—is what I did. I had in mind an avoidance play against RHO, which ultimately aims at setting up a spade trick.
In the actual layout, LHO wins with his singleton ♠ K and returns a heart to put the contract one down (double-dummy best defence).
Double-dummy 10 tricks are available at notrump if declarer plays a low spade to his ace after cashing all his diamonds, so GIB would go down (as did I). So go celebrate, all you double-dummy junkies.
(LHO's cards are ♠ K ♥ A65 ♦ T64 ♣ AT9642. RHO's cards are: ♠ JT6 ♥ JT82 ♦ Q875 ♣ 92.)
4 comments:
lol... why not play !H before touching spades.. In any case, the avoidance play requires A!H to be with LHO. Now, if he returns a !S or a !C,you get your ninth trick.
It is better to play technically correctly than to rely on a defensive error. If you set up a heart trick, a heart trick is all you've set up (duh!). Don't expect gifts.
And, most important, respect the venerable World-Par-Championship-13th-place-holder GIB whenever it supports me.
Well... The best thing (and th only thing) to do would be to wish the ♠K lies with LHO. Or else, you are going down anyway..
Double dummy? Aah.. If only wishes were horses...
As far as I can see, running the Q gains when spades are split K6 opposite JT. Cashing the ace gains when SK is singleton either way. (in both cases we have to assume heart ace is with the long club hand or there is no avoidance). The former is 1/6 * 0.4 while the latter is 1/4 * 0.5, so the latter is way better. So it was not double dummy logic, it was just logic. GIB running the Q is as baffling as electing not to ruff in that 6D hand couple of posts back. Either GIB is not as smart as we think it is, or we are much dumber than we think we are ;)
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