This deal was played in the Pacific Ocean on one of my bridge cruises that started in Miami and ended in San Francisco. It was a randomly dealt computer deal in the duplicate game. The player was Judge John Weinberg, one of the best in our group. He held:
AQ9832
AQ4
KQ10
5
With neither side vulnerable, he dealt and opened 1. His partner responded 2, natural and game forcing. Personally, I would have raised hearts, because partner has guaranteed five of them (a 2 response to 1 is the only 2-over-1 that guarantees 5 cards). Instead, Judge John repeated the 6-card spade suit and his partner jumped to 4. When already in a game force, such an action is weak. This is not to be confused, though, with "sign-off." When opener has a good hand such as this one, he can bid again. John used RKC for spades (4NT) and partner showed 2 keycards. Hoping for the K as well, John jumped to 6 and played there. Here is what he saw, with the A lead:
KJ
K10952
J97
AJ10
|
| |
AQ9832
AQ4
KQ10
5
|
After leading the A, West continues the suit. Assuming no 5-0 spade break (or diamond ruff), declarer can count on 12 easy tricks. Thankfully, East follows to both diamonds and declarer tests trumps.
You don't think you'd be reading about this deal if they split 3-2 or 4-1, do you? On the first round of spades, West discards a low club. Now what?
You will need a trump coup against East. The first rule of a trump coup is to reduce your trump length to that of your opponent. So, you play to the A and ruff a club.
Now, you have to cash some red tricks and hope to be in dummy when you have AQ9 as your last 3 cards and East has 1076 as his. The lead will come from dummy and East will not get a trump trick. In what order should you cash the red suits?
You are going to need East to have the heart length. If East has only two hearts, you are dead. No matter what order you cash winners in, you need East to follow to three rounds of hearts. Accordingly, you should play hearts before diamonds. Do not attempt to cash the third diamond winner. In fact, East follows to three rounds of hearts (he started with Jxx). Now, you simply cash the J and run hearts through East. If he ruffs, you overruff and draw trumps. If he doesn't ruff, you throw your high diamond and play another winner from dummy to coup East.
A look at the Real Deal shows what would have happened had you tried to cash your third diamond first:
Vul:E-W
Dlr:South |
KJ
K10952
J97
AJ10
|
|
--
73
A6432
K98764
|
|
107654
J86
85
Q32
|
| |
AQ9832
AQ4
KQ10
5
|
|
As you can see, East would have ruffed the third diamond; down one. Since you needed East to have three hearts, it made no sense to play diamonds first. Once three hearts cashed, you were home free. For making 6, Judge John got all the matchpoints. Only one other pair was in a slam. At that table, North declared 6X. This Lightner double induced East to lead a spade (dummy's first-bid suit). West ruffed and cashed the A for down one.
