An Entry Killing Play or Not

This deal happened in our weekly online training on 12th Mar, 2018.

Board 13

Vul: Both

Dealer: North

North East South West

1♢ Pass 3♣* Pass

3NT Pass Pass Pass

3♣: Inv

Lead: ♠4

Trick North East South West

1 ♠K ♠4 ♠2 ♠J

2 ♣2 ♣6 ♣J ♣K

3 ?

North accepts the invitation from South. The declarer wins with the ♠K and play a small club to dummy's ♣J. You win with the ♣K. And now what's your plan?

Obviously, South bids a bit more. 1NT might be a normal bidding, because ♣ is not strong enough to bear the risk of 3NT in such a vulnerability.

Fourth highest leading is applied in our defense. ♠4 indicates that partner holds 4♠ only. Returning ♠ is hopeless. To defeat the contract, partner must hold 10 points at least. Assuming that the declarer holds 16 points, the contract is frigid. Returning ♡ seems to be an entry killing coup. If the declarer couldn't return back hand, he will lose 3♣ and more importantly, there is no enough entry for dummy to build the ♣ suit and run it. Analyzing deeply, shifting ♡ will succeed in only one situation that the declarer holds 3 hearts with K and ♢A without ♠A. If the declarer doesn't hold ♡K, he must hold ♢AK. He could easily return back and he will win 5♣, 2♡, 2♢ and 1♠ at least. So your partner must hold one top ♢. You will win 2♣ and no hope in ♡, so ♢ is the only resource for other 2 winners. Hence, shifting ♢ is inevitable. Even if in above-mentioned situation, shifting ♢ is still a good choice. Assuming that the distribution of declarer is 4-3-4-2 with ♡K and ♢A, your partner will hold 4-3-3-3 with ♢K. If you shift ♢, the declarer must duck in this trick, otherwise he will lose 2♣, 2♢ and 1♠. In this situation, after winning with the ♢K, your partner will calculate the distribution of the declarer through his cards and he will decide to shift ♡ to kill the dummy's entry or keep returning ♢.

The full deal:

Board 13

Vul: Both

Dealer: North

Comments

Online training: An unexpected but reasonable ducking

HAHAHA, after one month off bridge, I'm back!!! This deal happened in our weekly online training, Nov 5th, 2018. First of all, I have to admit my mistake. Hahaha, to be honest, the training was quite boring. After 12 boards, the scores were still 2:2. Although I knew X was not allowed and I would be fined if 3♣X was brought home, I still couldn't help to doing that. Board 13 Dealer: North Vul: Both North East South West Pass Pass 1♢ 2♢* 2♡* 2♠ Pass Pass 3♣ X AP 2♢: Michael 2♡: ♣ suit, better than 3♣ Lead: ♡3 (if hasn't raised, count has a priority. That is to say, xxx lead the smallest card) Table followed ♡9. Normally, you would play ♡Q causally. Would it be correct in this case? Leading analysis: East seems to hold 3♡, unless East hold ♡32. In that case, North might not scramble for 3♣ under such vulnerability if North has 4 cards ♡. Bidding analysis: There is no doubt that East doubled,

Asian Game_ Pairs Final: Creating an entry!

This deal happened in the last segment of Asian Game Pairs Finals. Who played this deal would never be mentioned in my blog. I was quite afraid of being accused of insulting players. Board 15 Dealer: South Vul: N-S South West North East 2♡* Pass Pass X Pass 2♠ Pass 3NT AP 2♡: Weak 6 cards ♡ Lead: ♣4 North followed ♣Q and you won with the ♣A. And now, how to play? Now you had 3♣, 1♡, so you need 4♠ and 1♢. You must assume that South hold ♢A and North hold ♠K. Otherwise it would down quickly. The leading was quite strange. If he was 1-6-3-3, he would lead ♢. If he was 2-6-2-3, ♡ was the normal leading. I felt South hold 4 cards ♣, because he led quickly. However, it was hard to say. Anyway, you need 2 entries to finesse ♠K. One was ♢K, appreciating the leading, ♣9 became another entry. Before everything, you must knock out ♣J first. 1. If South won with the J and returned ♣. The distribution was clear. And South must hold d

Online training: Please remember to detect the honors beforehand !!!

This deal happened in our weekly online training last Monday. I couldn't concentrate my attention due to the lack of card sense online. Rookie mistake should be mentioned here. Board 13 Vul: Both Dealer: North East West 1NT 2♣ 2♡ 4♡ Lead: ♠7 South led ♠7 while North followed ♠J. And I won with the ♠Q. Now what's your plan? ♠7 seemed to be doubleton. Firstly, you couldn't avoid to lose 1♠, 1♢ and 1♣ at least. In other word, you must make a right guess in who had ♡Q. For me, due to the leading, I had supposed South hold long ♡ and he hadn't led trump, so I just played casually, cashing ♡K, then ♡J->♡2->♡5->♡Q... Oops... Doing some detection first to find more clues might be a better choose. Sending out ♢ first and whatever who won, he had no choice but to return ♢ or ♠. I could win in hand. Crossing to table with ♣K. And now the distribution was clear. If one A for each, now it was your guess time, no more information I thought. May

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