Mixed entry

I definitely am having trouble finding the time and energy to post to this blog regularly. This entry is a bit of a mish-mash to catch up on the past couple of weeks.

* * *

In the STaC week at the end of March, I was looking for about eleven silver points. I’m in Unit 155 of the ACBL, which covers New York City, and there are several clubs in the city which run games at the same time. In STaC week, we all use the same hands, of course, and the number of master points you get can be based on a city-wide overall standing. Sometimes a club will have a game that is different from everyone else’s, and that will stand alone, but for the usual afternoon and evening open pairs games you hope to ring up a big percentage and rake in ten or a dozen silver points in one go. Well, I didn’t do that. But Monday afternoon with Agent 99 was good enough to get 4.5 points in one game and 2 in another. Put together with a scattering of points from other sessions, I managed a total of just over twelve, and so now my focus is on gold points, where I also need about eleven. The Eastern States Regional is at the end of May, so I’m in negotiation with Agent 99, Elwood and others about what events we can play.

* * *

Finding lecture material is still a bit of a challenge for me. I’m just not as good as Jeff when it comes to looking back over a session and seeing what I could talk about for half an hour. It did occur to me that I should probably spend a session on the grand slam from the last regional. There are interesting points in that hand in both the bidding and the play. Well, not that interesting, but interesting enough given the target audience.

Then there’s this defensive problem, based on a hand from last night, and this is a candidate for a lecture, I think.

N-S game, dlr W (rotated)

            ♠ 
            ♥ 
            ♦ 
            ♣ 
♠                        ♠ 5 4
♥             [ ]        ♥ 9 8 4 3
♦                        ♦ A 4
♣                        ♣ 10 8 6 5 2
            ♠ K 10 8 3
            ♥ J 6 2
            ♦ K 10 8
            ♣ Q J 7

W     N     E     S
2NT   Pass  3♣    Pass
3♠    Pass  3NT   All pass

The opening lead from partner is the ♥5, and declarer takes your ♥J with the ♥A. At trick two, he leads the ♣3. Partner plays the ♣9, covered by the ♣10 and won by your ♣J. Now what?

If partner’s heart lead is 4th best, and there’s no reason to suspect otherwise, declarer has a doubleton, and winning the first trick with the ♥A suggests that it is probably AK tight. We know declarer has four or five spades, and they certainly contain at least a couple of honors to count towards his opening bid (20-21). Probably only four pieces, because with five he would likely be playing that suit instead of clubs. Diamonds we don’t know much about – probably declarer has the queen, maybe the jack too. But what about clubs? What is declarer up to?

He can’t have four pieces of clubs, or his play makes no sense at all. If partner had been looking at a singleton ♣9, declarer would have held ♣AKxx, and he would have played them from the top. Equally, declarer can’t have two clubs, because then he wouldn’t be bothering with the suit at all. No, he certainly has three clubs to either the ace or the king. (Again, with both he would have started them from the top). So we can picture declarer’s hand as 4=2=4=3, and we know where most of the high cards are. What will happen if we return partner’s suit now?

Obviously, declarer will win the ♥K and play another club. Quite probably, he will be playing ♣A and another, clearing the suit. Then we can cash a couple of hearts, and partner can play a diamond through for my king. The contract goes one down, or so it appears. What could go wrong?

            ♠ 9 7 2
            ♥ Q 10 7 5
            ♦ J 9 6 2
            ♣ K 9
♠ A Q J 6                ♠ 5 4
♥ A K         [ ]        ♥ 9 8 4 3
♦ Q 7 5 3                ♦ A 4
♣ A 4 3                  ♣ 10 8 6 5 2
            ♠ K 10 8 3
            ♥ J 6 2
            ♦ K 10 8
            ♣ Q J 7

On the fourth heart, I signal with the ♦10. But declarer sees it too. So he doesn’t run the diamond switch around to his ♦Q. Instead, he rises with the ♦A and cashes the long clubs. On the first, both declarer and I discard spades, no problem. But the last club squeezes the south hand. I have to let go another spade. Now declarer can ditch the ♦Q, and one spade finesse lands three tricks, and the contract.

That’s not good enough. So what can we do instead? Well, there’s only one entry to dummy. How about taking away that entry before the clubs are established? If you switch to the ♦K, it doesn’t even help declarer to duck, because you can continue with a second diamond to force the ace. Now declarer can only take two spade tricks, two hearts, one club, and maybe three diamonds (if he has the ♦J to go with his ♦Q). Meanwhile, we’re going to get two hearts, two clubs, and eventually either the ♠K or a long diamond. That’s one down.

I thought that the lead of an unsupported honor to kill an entry was the Deschapelles coup, but it isn’t. I discovered that it is instead known as the Merrimac coup. The Deschapelles coup is somewhat similar, but has the objective of creating an entry to partner’s hand.

In the original hand, declarer held ♠AK, so 3NT was always going one down, but the switch to the ♦K ensured two down for a better score. Making the change to the spades makes it a little more interesting.

And no, I didn’t find the switch. I was declarer, and the defender found it against me, the rotten bugger.