Board 55

I got an email from Dr Prakash Paranjape.  Prakash is a frequent commentator on BBO Vugraph matches and a Master Point Press author of Easier Done Than Said.  This is a lovely book  which revolves around deals from actual play (mostly in India).  This is all about brilliant declarer play. 

He had been watching the Vanderbilt but had missed part of the fourth quarter and he asked me what happened on Board 55.  So I had  a look at the board. which I have rotated

Both Vulnerable

	M. Bessis ♠ AK106 Q753 2 A763
	T. Bessis void A1096 J10973 8542

East was dealer, and in both rooms the auction started with two passes and then 1.  Michel Bessis doubled.  Do you like that call?  Obviously it is a matter of style and with most people prepared to open one of a minor with a very short suit one can understand why a double would promise majors and not minors.  In the Closed Room Levin with the same hand passed.  At Levin’s table he heard 1 on his left which was raised on his right.  He decided to let things lie (with support fo only one unbid suit)  and that was the final contract.  In the Open Room, after his partner’s takeout double Thomas Bessis bid 2 over Stansby’s 1.  Martel bid 2 promising four and now Michel made a very aggressive bid.  He bid 4.  He did this because he was certain that his partner had a singleton or void in spades and as long as his partner had good hearts (e.g. AKxx)  he could more or less count nine tricks.  Three in the black suits, four trump and two ruffs.  And with 5 trumps partner would be even better placed.  Thomas was also quite likely to have a club fit with him, especially if he only had four hearts.  He liked the fit and he “took a shot”.

Now it was up to Thomas to make sure his “shot” hit the target.   The opening lead was the 5, which you win with dummy’s ace, throwing a club from hand.  One nice thing about this deal for Thomas was the knowledge that spades were 4-5.  Anyway, how do you play it?

Obviously you are going to need to make some extra tricks by ruffing.  If you can make 6 trump tricks you still have only 8 tricks.  Can you make 8 trump tricks?  That seems unlikely.  Setting up diamonds doesn’t seem to be good enough since you will have entry problems.  Maybe you can set up clubs.  No matter what, the first order of business seems to be to give up a diamond.  So you lead dummy’s diamond and your jack loses to Martel’s queen.

Martel returns the 7.  What do you do?  From the return it appears that Martel has the trump king — a trump return appears obvious otherwise.  You would prefer not to have a trump led by Stansby (and in fact that will defeat the hand as we will see later).  You are going to have to give up a trick to set up clubs.  With all the high clubs missing and with Stansby behind the A you cannot prevent him from gaining the lead on a club except in the very unlikely case that Martel had the KQJ.  But you may be able to lose a spade to Martel.  Here is an opportunity.  You could play low and hope that Stansby does not see the need to overtake his partner’s spade or you could play the 10.  That works if Stansby doesn’t or can’t cover or if Martel has started with the Q9xx.  You decide which play is better, since neither seem that likely to succeed.

At the table Thomas played low and Stansby failed to cover.  Declarer could then let Martel hold the trick throwing a club.  This is the position

	M. Bessis ♠ K10 Q753 — A763
Martel Q9 K82 K8 KJ10		Stansby J83 J4 A65 Q9
	T. Bessis void A1096 10973 82

There is nothing Martel can do.  If he returns a spade, declarer wins with the king in dummy, throwing a club from hand.  He can start setting up clubs with ace and a ruff.  Returning to dummy with a diamond ruff he leads another club (the last club is almost certainly held by Martel).  Suppose Stansby ruffs with the J: he over ruffs and ruffs another diamond.  He ruffs dummy’s last spade and has eight tricks in.  He now completes the crossruff by leading a diamond.  Ruffing high will not help West since declarer will then have two trump winners, the 10 and the Queen and if he ruffs low he still cannot prevent declarer from scoring two trump tricks.  You can try other variations but declarer can always succeed.

At the table, Martel returned a heart instead of a spade, and Stansby’s J forced the A.  The crossruff still works and produces ten tricks.  The last trick is the Q scored en passant.

Looking at Martel’s (partial) hand you can see that he did have the Q9 so that covering with the 10 at Trick 3 would have guaranteed the contract.  But Martel could have defeated the contract.  Instead of playing a spade back, a small trump return at that point (and not later as he did) will work.

Let’s look at the play to Trick 3 again, though.  Suppose that Stansby had covered dummy’s spade with the J.  Let’s say Thomas ducks and wins theJ with the A.  He still needs a discard for a club.  You can try it but nothing works.  He can’t afford to give up the lead because a trump comes back and he runs out of things to ruff.  In fact, the spade is the worst return because it helps declarer set up extra ruffs.

This was well played by Thomas Bessis.  It is hard to defend but I still think the defense should have prevailed.  Still a very interesting deal and a very challenging one to get right on both sides of the table.

	M. Bessis AK10 6 Q753 2 A763
Martel Q975 K82 KQ8 KJ10		Stansby J8432 J4 A654 Q9
	T. Bessis void A1096 J10973 8542