Lesson Hands

The best thing about watching great players is that you can learn something.

In the Round 5 match in the Round Robin Lavazza versus Rayner, Sementa demonstrated a critical defensive play which defeated 3NT and won 10 imps for his team.

Let us look at the deal from his perspective.

Duboin	Hargreaves	Sementa	McAvoy
		1♣	pass
1♥	1NT	2♥	3♥
pass	3NT

His opponents likely had near 25 high card points which suggested that Duboin had responded “on air”. McAvoy’s  3♥ bid was alerted as Stayman without a stopper.

In any case a heart lead was the obvious choice and Sementa lead his fourth best. This is what he saw (I have rotated this deal to put declarer South).

	McAvoy ♠ AQ64 ♥ 842 ♦ Q10762 ♣ 2
Sementa ♠ KJ85 ♥ Q1076 ♦ 9 ♣ AQ83

Duboin produced the ♥K and Hargreaves won the ♥A.  By this point a lot is known about the deal.  First, Duboin probably doesn’t have more than another jack or so.  Second declarer has two hearts left exactly.  Declarer certainly has all five diamond tricks, two spade tricks (with the finesse) and the heart trick already in, a total of eight tricks.  Now Duboin worked out the five tricks his side needed to beat the contract – three hearts and two clubs.

It is pretty clear what declarer’s plan will be.  He will run his tricks and try to put pressure on Sementa.  What will Sementa keep?  He has to keep three spades and the ♣AQ and he has to make four pitches.  He can afford one spade and two clubs so he is going to have to pitch a heart.  But he KNOWS that Duboin has a heart higher than his ♥7.  Since Hargreaves only has two hearts Duboin must have the ♥J or the ♥9.  So Sementa has to keep his ♥7 to get to Duboin’s hand for a club through (or to cash the defenses last heart winner).

Really, this is all pretty apparent at trick one.  Let’s see what happened.

Hargreaves took the spade finesse and then ran his diamonds as expected.  Sementa’s discards were planned so the only issue was helping his partner.  He used his first two discards to alert partner to his strong club holding  (the ♣ 3 followed by the ♣ 7 in their methods showed strength.)  Then he pitched the ♥10.  This let partner know that he was expected to hold all of his hearts. Duboin had been following in diamonds.  Duboin now pitched his spade and his last club.  Duboin held all his hearts as he was expected to do.

Now Hargraeves exited with the ♠ A and another, hoping that he had endplayed Sementa.  Here was the ending

Dealer: Vul:	McAvoy ♠ 64 ♥ 84 ♦ – ♣ 2
Sementa ♠ K ♥ Q7 ♦ – ♣ AQ		Duboin ♠ – ♥ 953 ♦ – ♣ 109
	Hargreaves ♠ 10 ♥ J ♦ – ♣ KJ6

Exactly as foreseen Sementa is in on the ♠ K.  He cashed the ♥Q and then exited the ♥7 to Duboin and his side could take all the tricks.

As happened at some tables, if Sementa did not unblock the ♥10 he would have been endplayed.   I think the interesting thing is that this could be worked out at trick one.  I don’t know if Sementa did all his thinking before playing to trick two or not.

Here is the whole deal

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ AQ64 ♥ 842 ♦ Q10762 ♣ 2
West ♠ KJ85 ♥ Q1076 ♦ 9 ♣ AQ83		East ♠ 93 ♥ K953 ♦ 543 ♣ 10975
	South ♠ 1072 ♥ AJ ♦ AKJ8 ♣ KJ64