The Middle Game by Albert Dormer

The people you play against…do they never make mistakes?

Many declarers seem to credit opponents with the ability to see through the backs of the cards. Hence, they doggedly pursue a legitimate but unpromising line of play, to the exclusion of an alternative that would fail against double-dummy defence but would give the defenders a very good chance to go wrong in practice.

8 7 5  Q 9 5  A 10 9 2  8 6 3

A K J 3  A K J 8 2  7 6  Q 5

At match-pointed pairs South opened One Heart and North gave a dubious raise to Two Hearts. In the hope of gaining an advantage in the play, South made deceptive trial bid of Three Diamonds and passed North’s return to Three Hearts.

West led Q and East encouraged with 6. The contract was safe, but South wanted the overtrick. Perhaps you would like to plan your play before reading on. It seemed likely, from the play to the first trick, that East held 10xxx and West Qx. If East held 10962 specifically, then South’s 3 could be made good by finessing. This would necessitate running dummy’s 8 on the second round of the suit and so would lose immediately if West originally held Q9. Alternatively, declarer might draw two rounds of trumps and try to ruff the losing spade. This would succeed if East, in addition to four spades, held three trumps o that West would not be able to ruff the third round.

Each of these plays is technically sound. A thoughtful player might hope to improve his chances by leading a club from dummy at an early stage. If this could be ducked into the West hand, no doubt West would continue spades in response to his partner’s signal and would thus clarify the spade position.

What was is your plan ? If you simply rattled off the trumps and relied on faulty discarding, you showed better appreciation than if you followed either of the plans mentioned above.

Why should you rely on East discarding wrongly? Because you know, and East doesn’t, that the opening lead was from a short suit. East has no reason to suspect that the lead was not a normal lead from a suit headed by the Queen and Jack. Since he will have holdings to look after in the other two suits, he may safely be expected to let go a spade. At trick two, therefore, play the Ace of trumps and then a small trump to the Queen. If West drops the 10 on the second round, play to ruff a spade. Otherwise, run off the trumps.

Here is another example of the deliberate adoption of a technically inferior line of play; more advanced, perhaps; but not difficult to follow:

A 8 2  A K Q 7 Q 6 4  K 6 3

J 7 3  9 6 5  A 8 3 2  J 8 7

South played in Two No Trumps and West led 4, dummy’s Ace taking the second round. What now?

Declarer might have played off the hearts and exited with a spade, hoping for some kind of end-play. This plan would have little chance, since dummy could ill afford a discard on the thirteenth spade and the hand would become easy to defend. A diamond to the Ace and back to the Queen has negligible prospects. If West has the K he will hop up, cash his spades and exit. Two clubs will remain to be lost. A better legitimate play would be a small diamond from each hand. This, assuming a heart break, enables eight tricks to be made if either opponent has the doubleton K and West has A with slight additional chances.

An attractive alternative appears to be a small club from dummy to declarer’s Jack. No doubt this will establish an immediate club trick if East has the Queen and West the Ace and it might be possible to exit with the third round of clubs at a later stage, hoping to force a lend away from K. However, this plan will fail if East discards correctly and West makes the right return after cashing his last spade. South found another way. At trick three K was led from dummy and both defenders solemnly played low. A small club to the Jack followed and this, too, held the trick.

West, of course, held Axx of clubs and on the lead of dummy’s King he placed declarer with Q10xx or QJxx, in which event a hold-up might be in order. The play to the second round of clubs appeared to confirm that South held QJxx.

The full deal was:

	A 8 2  A K Q 7 Q 6 4  K 6 3
Q 10 6 4  J 4 2  10 7 5  A 9 3		K 9 5  10 8 3  K J 9  Q 10 5 2
	J 7 3  9 6 5  A 8 3 2  J 8 7

West should have given the matter a little more thought. Not, perhaps, when K was led, as it might be important not to give away the position of the Ace. But there could be no harm in stopping to think about the next trick and West should then have realised that it could not be wrong to take the Ace. With the Q and the A or K declarer could not be denied his club tricks since the diamond honour would furnish an entry to the closed hand.

And if declarer has neither the A nor K, the defenders have six tricks for the taking. This does not detract from South’s good play, since even if it had not succeeded in this spectacular way he would have had another string to his bow. If either defender takes the K and the spades are cashed, the defender on lead may think it time to attack diamonds. From his viewpoint, declarer could now have three club tricks, four hearts and a spade.

A diamond lead away from the King would enable dummy to win and lead a club, establishing the eighth trick if East has the Q. In general, declarer’s play illustrates the principle that where there is a choice of suits to play on, it is better to choose the suit in which tricks are, or may be, already available to the defenders, rather than to open up a suit in which declarer has the top cards.

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