Playing with TGBH

Author: Larry Cohen
Date of publish: 08/01/2021
Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Earlier this year, I partnered the Great Bob Hamman in a live BBO game. We were playing in front of an audience with me narrating as I bid and played randomly-dealt BBO deals--lots of pressure! I arrived in 6♠ with this layout: 

♠ AQ92
♥ A95
♦ K82
♣ A64
 
♠ 53
♥ KJ762
♦ AQJ43
♣ 9

A club was led and I explained to my audience that in a suit contract, I start by counting losers.  Unless diamonds are 5-0, the only potential losers are in the majors. If the ♠K is wrong, I will need hearts 3-2 onside (the odds favor finessing with 8, not playing for the drop). But, what if the ♠K is onside? Now, I can afford to lose a heart trick.

Can you figure out the safe way to play hearts for at most 1 loser (let's assume they aren't 5-0)? 

Because of the ♠9 in dummy (thanks, Bob), there is a well-known solution. You don't want to start with the ♠A. If you do and RHO started with a small singleton, you will lose 2 tricks. The answer is to start with the ♠K. Let's assume everyone plays low. Now you lead a low heart towards the ♠A9. If LHO shows out, no problem. You go up with the ace and lead another, losing only one trick to RHO's ♠Q10xx. If LHO plays the ♠10 or ♠Q there is also no problem. And if LHO follows low, you insert dummy's ♠9. If it loses, the suit was 3-2. If it wins, your safety play was needed.

So, would it be the safety play or play hearts "normally" (ace and finesse)? To decide,  I needed to know if the spade finesse was winning. If so, I would make the safety play in hearts. If not, I would need to play for 3-2 hearts onside.

How do I get to my hand for the spade finesse? My first instinct was to trump a club, but then I risk running out of trumps. Cross in diamonds? That risks an eventual diamond ruff. I decided that if LHO had a singleton diamond, he likely would have led it. So, I crossed in diamonds and took a spade finesse. It won. Now a heart to the king and a heart towards the 9. 

It turns out, that on the Real Deal, hearts were 3-2 all along. But the layout below is what I was catering to.  Note: Trying to play bridge and narrate to the audience at the same time is not something I recommend unless you have a big bottle of aspirin close by.

  ♠ AQ92
♥ A95
♦ K82
♣ A64
 
♠ K104
♥ Q1083
♦ 97
♣ Q1052
  ♠ J876
♥ 4
♦ 1065
♣ KJ873
  ♠ 53
♥ KJ762
♦ AQJ43
♣ 9