Like an Open Book

By Christer Andersson

Card reading is greatly simplified by hardcore information from the opponents. Opposing signals are often not to be trusted but information from the bidding is more often reliable. In Israel's match against Poland (Juniors Round 19), Dror Lellouche drew inferences from a bid showing distribution to land his game contract:

Board 15. Dealer South. All Vul.
	ª J 3 2 © A J 8 5 4 ¨ K 6 5 § Q 2
ª Q 9 6 © K Q 9 6 3 ¨ - § K J 8 7 3		ª K 7 © 10 7 2 ¨ J 10 9 7 3 § 9 5 4
	ª A 10 8 5 4 © - ¨ A Q 8 4 2 § A 10 6

Open Room
West	North	East	South
K. Kotorowicz	Hoffman	J. Kotorowicz	Lellouche
			1ª
2ª	Dble	3§	Pass
Pass	3ª	Pass	3NT
Pass	4ª	All Pass

Over Lellouche's 1ª opening, West showed a two-suited hand with hearts and a minor, weak (0-11 HCP) or strong (16 HCP+). East's 3§ was a sign-off in partner's minor assuming the weaker type of hand.

West lead the ©K, Lellouche putting up the ace on the table and discarding a losing club from hand. A trump was played and declarer guessed to play the ten from hand. West won the trick with the queen and returned the six. Finding it highly unlikely that West had played a trump from the king, Lellouche followed small from the table and saw East contributing his king. Already at this stage a 3-5-0-5 distribution was likely in the West seat. To confirm his suspicion, Lellouche won the king with the ace, and followed up with another trump to the jack in dummy and a diamond to hand. East discarded a discouraging club on the last spade and West another club on the diamonds. Having confirmed his suspicion about the distribution, Lellouche took both his trump winners and continued with ace and king of diamonds, carefully noting which cards were discarded.

	ª - © J 8 ¨ - § Q 2
ª - © Q 9 ¨ - § K J		ª - © 2 ¨ 10 9 § 4
	ª - © - ¨ 8 4 § A 10

In dummy, Lellouche had to decide if West had entered the bidding at unfavourable vulnerability with:

ª Q x x
© K Q x x x
¨ -
§ K x x x x

or with

ª Q x x
© K Q x x x
¨ -
§ J x x x x

In the former case it would be correct to continue with §Q, forcing East to cover and transferring the stopper to West. He could then be put on lead with the club Jack and be forced to give declarer his tenth trick in hearts. Declarer, however, correctly played a club to the ace and another club (although it did not matter in the actual case). The endplay was affected, and the game scored.

Although the contract and the lead was the same at the other table, Israel won 12 IMPs on the board. The Polish declarer chose to play a trump to the eight in hand at trick two. West could win with the nine and continue with his low trump to partner's king and declarer's ace. From here declarer could not find a winning line.

Grecian Earns Contract

Board 10. Dealer East. North/South Vul.
	ª Q 10 9 8 2 © K J 4 ¨ K J 2 § J 8
ª A J © Q 7 6 5 3 ¨ 9 7 § A 6 5 4		ª 7 5 4 © A 9 2 ¨ A Q 5 3 § K Q 2
	ª K 6 3 © 10 8 ¨ 10 8 6 4 § 10 9 7 3

West	North	East	South
M Dialynas		A Dialynas
		1NT	Pass
2¨	Pass	2©	Pass
3NT	Pass	4©	All Pass

On Board 10 of Round 22, Alexis Dialynas for Greece chose 4© rather than 3NT for the final contract, due to the spade weakness.

The lead of §10 went to the king, and ace and another heart to the queen lost to the king. North cashed ©J and played ¨2. Alexis carefully ducked this to South. The timing was now just right for a squeeze. The Polish South exited with a spade to dummy's ace. Alexis cashed two trumps, discarding spades. South was forced to resign, squeezed in the minors, declarer taking the delayed diamond finesse and winning ¨5 in the ending.

That Hand Again - Denmark v Hungary in Round 10

By Peter Gill

Board 9. Dealer North. East/West Vul.
	ª 10 6 © 10 4 ¨ Q 10 9 7 4 § Q 8 6 5
ª Q 3 2 © Q J 9 ¨ A 8 6 § K 9 7 4		ª A K J 9 8 5 © 7 6 ¨ J 5 2 § A 10
	ª 7 4 © A K 8 5 3 2 ¨ K 3 § J 3 2

Correcting the previous episode about this hand on page 15 of Bulletin 9, Gai Hegedus didn't discard ¨K until Boje Henriksen played the fourth round of clubs, so Boje (East) in 4ª was unable to play for ¨Q onside. The discard of ¨K on the fourth club was a rather brilliant play, superior to that previous credited to Hegedus, and declarer's play also was better than that previous shown.

The sequence of play in 4ª was: ©A, ©K, a third heart ruffed and over-ruffed, ªA and §A were cashed, §10 to the king followed by a club ruff and ªQ. The defenders, Marjai and Hegedus, had both given false count in clubs, so declarer Henriksen thought that South probably had §Q. He thus cashed ¨A to remove South's marked (by counting) singleton, and played the last club. It was on this trick that Gai Hegedus discarded ¨K, removing declarer's second chance of making the contract. Declarer was left rueing the fact that there was no spade entry to dummy, and had to go down.