A Ducking Defense
I was dummy playing with a pick-up partner watching the play on this deal. Chris Willenken, one of the fine new group of young top experts was sitting West (well West when I rotated the deal) and made an interesting defensive play.
With everyone vulnerable you have
 10
|
Partner opens 1
and you bid 1
. Chris overcalls 2 natural and this is passed to you. What do you do? I suppose 2
is the best and that is what you bid. Is this a game force? I don’t think so but it is forcing for one round for sure. Anyway partner bids 3. Do you press on to 4? I think this is pretty aggressive and there’s a chance the 
K isn’t going to work out for you but you can’t resist the vulnerable game.
The opening lead is the Q. This is dummy.
| North
|
||
| South
|
You win the ace. How do you play the hand. Chris, West, probably has most of the remaining high cards for his vulnerable two-level overcall. It looks like his partner has the 
K and most likely the J too. It seems to me that it is very likely Chris has the A and 
K.
This is how the play went at the table. South led the K, won by Chris with the A. Chris returned a spade which South ruffed. South played a heart to dummy as Chris showed out. He tried the diamond finesse which won. Now what?
If you repeat the diamond finesse you can run diamonds pitches a spade from dummy on the third diamond. West will ruff in but you will still have the 10 as an entry to your hand. However, it turns out that when you repeat the finesse Chris wins the K. And down two you go. As it turns out, if Chris wins the first diamond that also leads to down two while ducking gives declarer a chance at down one if he guesses it. Of course he can’t, well maybe he can. But who can blame declarer from taking a chance to make it.
I personally would have finessed the diamond at trick two. That doesn’t help much but if Chris does duck and I guess he’s down that I can make the hand. There are various lines that work. An interesting point about the hand is the opening lead. Only a spade will do. The hand can be made on any other lead.
Here is the whole hand.
| North
|
||
| West
|
East
|
|
| South
|
So the clever duck isn’t always right but it is hard to read. I should know. On the next deal I ducked an ace and left a position (while impossible to read) could have let a doomed contract make.
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