Chapter 12
Everyone Deserves a Second Chance
© 2006 - Marty Bergen
Page 129
Everyone Deserves a Second Chance
Testing the Waters
Contract: 3NT
Lead:
 J |
|
North
A
6
 7
5 4
10 5 4 3 2
A Q 4 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
South
K
5
K
Q J
A 8 7 6
K 7 5 3 |
|
|
Setting: Swiss Teams, so forget about overtricks. Your goal
is to take 9 tricks.
At
first glance: You have 6 tricks off the top: 2 spades, 1
diamond, and 3 clubs. Setting up 2 heart tricks is no problem,
but you need 9 tricks, not 8.
The
reward: I consider this to be an excellent example of a hand
that requires good technique. When I use it in my classes, not
many play it correctly. If you play the hand perfectly, you
deserve to take a bow. If you don’t make it, when you read the
solution, I hope that you’ll be delighted to add it to your
repertoire. Plan the play before reading on.
© 2006- Marty Bergen
Page 130
Everyone Deserves a Second Chance
When
you saw this page, I’ll bet that your first thoughts were
something like: “Marty, where are the E-W cards? After
your big buildup on the previous page, why didn’t you let us see
if we made the hand?”
Patience, dear readers. I hope you’ll agree that, in the long
run, learning to play hands correctly is more important than
choosing the second-best line of play and getting lucky.
Editor’s note: This sounds like something a teacher or parent
told us when we were growing up.
I hope
that you’ll soon understand why the distribution of the E-W
cards does not matter!
{N-S cards repeated for convenience}
Contract: 3NT
Lead:
J |
|
North
A
6
7
5 4
10 5 4 3 2
A Q 4 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
South
K
5
K
Q J
A 8 7 6
K 7 5 3 |
|
|
© 2006- Marty Bergen
Page 131
Everyone
Deserves a Second Chance
Okay,
here we go. As
described earlier, you have six sure tricks. If you get lucky
and clubs split 3-3, your fourth club will bring you up to seven
tricks.
If you
succeed in winning four club tricks, then you need only two
additional tricks to make nine. Because of your
K
Q J, that’s not a problem. You’ll immediately lead
hearts and make 3NT.
However, if the opponents’ six clubs don’t split 3-3, you’ll
need three additional tricks to get to nine. Because you
can set up only two tricks in hearts, there’d be no point
in pursuing that suit. However, you can get three
additional tricks in diamonds if the four missing diamonds
happen to divide 2-2.
It
doesn’t matter where you win the opening spade lead. Once you
do, first test clubs to discover how many tricks you have
now. If clubs divide 3-3, work on hearts. If, as expected,
clubs don’t split 3-3, attack diamonds and hope and pray that
they divide 2-2.
Unless
you play clubs first, you can’t possibly know which red suit to
attack. The technique of testing a suit to learn more about
how to proceed is an example of a “discovery play.”
By the
way: If neither clubs nor diamonds split, you will go down,
but with no regrets. You played the hand perfectly, but 3NT
could not be made on a spade lead.
© 2006- Marty Bergen
Chapter 13:
Counting Winners in Suit Contracts ............... 141
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