Today's deal was played in a recent club team-of-four league match, boards
duplicated for all matches.
North-South vulnerable South deals
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
|
4 |
Dbl |
End |
|
|
Opening Lead:
K
Most South players risked a 4
opening at unfavourable vulnerability.
Whether East-West were playing penalty
doubles or takeout doubles, West could
hardly afford to pass. The West hand is a
prototypical "optional double," suggesting a
balanced hand with sound values. East is
expected to pass such a double unless he
believes he has a chance to make the five-level
(or higher). It is more popular to play
doubles of all preemptive openings as
takeout, but many prefer to draw the line at
the 4
level: doubles of 4
and higher are penalty.
Most Easts passed West's double, even if it was for takeout. When West led
the
K
and not the
A,
it seemed that declarer would be able to
scramble home. He won the
A,
threw two diamonds on high hearts, and
ruffed a diamond. We can see that a high
trump from hand would have secured the
contract (the defence cannot untangle a
third trump winner) but the expert Souths
knew that this was the wrong percentage
play. If trumps were 3-1 either the ace or
the king would be singleton twice as often (combined)
as the ten; if trumps were 2-2 it would
usually make no difference which spade South
led first. Sagely, these declarers advanced
the
6.
West won the ten and led a third heart,
enabling East to ruff with the
A.
The
K
was a third trump winner for the defence and
so declarer was one down after all.
A few Easts bid 4NT, showing at least two
places to play. West bid 5
in case East held both minors; North doubled
and led a high heart. If South did not ruff
to return a spade, the best the defenders
could do was two down (low heart to ruff,
spade ruff, trump ace), plus 500. Curiously,
where the lead of the
K
might have been from ace-king or king-queen,
South was more likely to ruff and lead a
spade. Now he could ruff another heart and
give North a second spade ruff. Down 800.