Finding Jack

Author: Larry Cohen
Date of publish: 12/01/2020
Level: Intermediate to Advanced

This deal was played in "the local duplicate" in Boca Raton earlier this year. I have many teaching deals in my arsenals designed to locate a queen. Finding a jack is a much more difficult topic, so I was delighted when David Berkowitz called to tell me about this deal he played at the club. He held:
♠ K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2

After three passes, nobody vulnerable, he opened 2♠. In 4th seat the range for a "weak" two bid is about 9/10 to 13/14 HCP (with a really weak hand, you'd pass the deal out). His 2♠ bought the contract and the ♠10 was led:

 

♠ Q2
♥ Q954
♦ J72
♣ KQ109
 
♠ K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2

East cashed two high diamonds and played a third round, all following. How will you play the trump suit? That is sort of a trick question. The normal play in spades is low to the queen and later to finesse the ♠10. However, David did some exploratory preparation.

He led a club to trick 4. LHO won the ace and cashed the ♠A and played another heart to declarer's king. Any new ideas about the spade suit?

Remarkably, you can place both the ace and the jack! West won't have the ♠A. Why not? He already has the ♠A and ♠A. Do you know any player this century who would pass with 3 aces? Not me. So, East has the ♠A. He also had the ♠AK. Personally, I'd open with AK-A, especially in 3rd seat. This East player was conservative, yes, but if you add in the ♠J, I'll bet anyone would have opened.  That was David's conclusion. East had to have the ♠A (West couldn't have 3 aces) and West had to have the ♠J (East would have opened in 3rd seat with 12 HCP including AK-A).

Backing his convictions, he led the ♠10. If West had ♠J9x, nothing could be done. If West had ♠J9 doubleton, David would likely misguess the suit (10-jack-queen-ace and later a finesse against the 9, better odds than J9 doubleton). However, this was the real deal:

Vul:East-West
Dlr: West
♠ Q2
♥ Q954
♦ J72
♣ KQ109
 
♠ J65
♥ AJ7
♦ 10983
♣ A54
  ♠ A9
♥ 10863
♦ AK4
♣ 8763
  ♠ K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2
 

West actually didn't cover the ♠10 (would you?) for fear declarer had ♠K109 and was trying to get a cover. Anyway, David backed his card-reading and let the 10 run. Making 2!

This is the kind of deal where "normal" players would lose 2 spade tricks by the very normal play of a spade to the queen and ace and then an odds-on losing finesse. They would later see the double-dummy indication that it makes--and realize that running the ♠10 was the winning play. "Not findable," they'd ruminate. Unless you are a hall-of-famer.