This hand occurred at a local tournament in Pune, India.
The defense was made by Rajendra Gokhale (rvg), who has won the premier teams event in the 2018 Indian nationals.
You hold J9x, Txx, Axx, JT8x and opponents reach 4S by the following auction. LHO being the dealer:
1NT - 2C
2H - 2S
4S
You choose to lead the J of clubs and see
Declarer wins the A, with partner discouraging and runs the DT to your A.
You win and play a heart. Declarer wins the HA, cashes the HK and ruffs a heart. Declarer then plays the DQ pitching the last heart from dummy. Partner wins the K and returns a club which declarer wins the 9 dummy and plays a spade to the K winning.
At this point, defense has won 2 tricks (DA and DK) and partner needs to have the SA to have any chance. Even then, where is the 4th trick coming from?
Declarer is going to duck a spade to drop partner's A and that will be end of defense. What will you do?
When declarer played a spade towards the Q, rvg put up the Jack! Declarer covered with the Q which was won by partner's A. Partner now played the last heart to promote the S9 for the setting trick.
Nice defense!
The defense was made by Rajendra Gokhale (rvg), who has won the premier teams event in the 2018 Indian nationals.
You hold J9x, Txx, Axx, JT8x and opponents reach 4S by the following auction. LHO being the dealer:
1NT - 2C
2H - 2S
4S
You choose to lead the J of clubs and see
| IMPS None | ||
| West ♠ Qxxx ♥ AKxx ♦ T ♣ AQ9x | ||
| South ♠ J9x ♥ Txx ♦ Axx ♣ JT8x |
| W | N | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1NT | P | 2C | P |
| 2H | P | 2S | P |
| 4S | P | P | P |
Declarer wins the A, with partner discouraging and runs the DT to your A.
You win and play a heart. Declarer wins the HA, cashes the HK and ruffs a heart. Declarer then plays the DQ pitching the last heart from dummy. Partner wins the K and returns a club which declarer wins the 9 dummy and plays a spade to the K winning.
At this point, defense has won 2 tricks (DA and DK) and partner needs to have the SA to have any chance. Even then, where is the 4th trick coming from?
Declarer is going to duck a spade to drop partner's A and that will be end of defense. What will you do?
When declarer played a spade towards the Q, rvg put up the Jack! Declarer covered with the Q which was won by partner's A. Partner now played the last heart to promote the S9 for the setting trick.
Nice defense!
What if W doesn't cover with SQ and let partner win with SA?
ReplyDeleteWhen declarer sees the Jack, Jx opposite A9x is a real possibility and covering with the Q is required. Declarer can choose to play for J9x opposite Ax and play low, but that would be anti-percentage (you play for defenders to have made a great play!)
DeletePlaying the J gives declarer a losing option which they are likely to take. If they don't you have lost nothing as compared to following with the 9.
That was a good defense no doubt but but when Spade was played from dummy North should have played SA followed by heart promoting a Spade for South!
ReplyDeleteThat would have been a great defense.
Arun Joglekar, Pune
Dummy is out of hearts too at that point so I don't see how that works. Can you please elaborate?
DeleteI think the brilliant play is North returning a heart for the trump promotion. South did his share, for sure. It takes two to tango.
ReplyDeleteMichael Beyrouti
I am on BridgeWinners and just saw your comments on Rosenberg's article on the greatest play.
In my view North did their part and the brilliancy is by South :)
DeleteAt the point North won the SA they had no source of tricks other than a possible trump trick. But it does require North to be aware and they sure did their part.