Bad Fit Deals by AndrewsThomas

Transcription

1 Bad Fit Deals by AndrewsThomas Introduction Every week, the oddest things happen at the bridge table. This collection is devoted to exploring a specific sort of oddity - the six-card fit. Specifically, it will discuss the cases when the six-card fit is the best place to play, double-dummy. For example, in this grand slam: KJ5 AKJ983 AKJ Q854 K Q AQ9 AJ Q3 North/South have a lot of playing strength, but the only grand slam which makes is in clubs - two top diamonds are cashed, then a diamond ruffed with the club queen, and then north's spade entry is used to draw trumps and claimed. Most of the examples that follow are significantly more complicated than this, of course. Finding Deals As with my collection of Double Asymmetries, this collection used a combination of two programs to find interesting examples: Deal, my own flexible dealer. GIB, a double dummy solver written by Matt Ginsberg. Actually, I didn't use GIB directly; instead, I used Ginsberg's library of about 720,000 deals, including double dummy results. Ginsberg generated those results using GIB, however. Six-card fits are the double-dummy par result about once out of every 210 deals - they are not that rare. As with the previous collection, I did a considerable amount of sifting by hand, finding the more interesting examples, altering holdings to make the examples cleaner. Thanks to Richard Pavlicek for pointing out some oversights on my part. Richard has a deal on his site where the only making game is in an awful 5-card suit. As usual, I encourage feedback, particularly if you find errors in analysis, but even if I've left in typos or bad grammar. I'm a bad copy editor :-) Chapter I. Games A Basic Example 1098 Q6 Q54 AJ874 J76432 K5 A A8 J Q105 AQ KJ105 K1063 K62 In 3NT, spade leads and west's two aces hold declarer to 7 tricks. In 5, the defense gets a club, a heart, and a diamond. Can 4 make? If the defense tries to force declarer to lose control, by leading spades, declarer wins the Q on the first round, leads trumps until west wins, and wins a second spade. Declarer draws a third round of trumps, leaving east with a trump, then leads a diamond. West should duck, declarer wins the Q, then ducks a diamond to west. West can now force declarer to ruff a spade at this position: 1098 Q6 Q54 AJ873 J76432 K5 A A8 J Q105 AQ KJ105 K1063 K63 What should east pitch? If east pitches a club, declarer ruffs, cashes two clubs and leads the diamond off dummy, finessing with the 10. East gets the last trick with the outstanding trump. If, instead, east ruffs the spade, south overruffs and only has a club loser remaining, again taking the diamond finesse. So, east must pitch a diamond, leading to this position:

2 Bad Fit Deals Q6 Q54 AJ874 J76432 K5 A A8 J Q105 AQ KJ105 K1063 K63 Declarer now plays two top diamonds. If east ruffs, he is forced to lead from his clubs, while if east pitches a club, east only gets his trump trick at the end. Any defense which does not force in spades will allow declarer to lose just the two red aces and a club. The five-card end position above is quite common in 4-2 fits in the collection. It's an odd sort of trump strip-squeeze, almost. East is endplayed if he ruffs, but he loses his "natural" club trick if he pitches a club. A Matter of Timing J6 KJ5 Q762 AK84 A Q103 A J93 Q62 J5 KQ AK A heart lead sets 3NT - west gets in eventually with the A to continue the suit. In 5, the defense gets a heart, a spade, and a club. In 5, it seems like declarer might be able to pitch losing clubs on spades. The problem is a lack of entries to the north hand. Declarer has to take his spades after the trumps are drawn, and must ruff the heart loser before the trumps are drawn. But then where is the entry to the spades if east hold up a round? The only game which makes is 4. The defense has no way of keeping declarer from scoring three spades, a heart, four diamonds and two clubs. Their best bet is to try to force declarer with hearts. Timing is everything. Declarer needs to fear this position, with the opponents on lead: K Q762 AK A J93 Q62 J5 KQ AK Declarer doesn't mind losing a second heart, pitching a club, but if east wins the third round and leads the fourth declarer is stuck. The trick, then, is to lose the two heart tricks early, to cut off the entry to east's hand. If west leads the ten or three of hearts, declarer plays low from dummy. Say west continues hearts. Declarer covers, and if east ducks, declarer immediately exits with a heart, pitching a club from hand. East cannot profitably lead a fourth round of hearts, because declarer still has two trumps in dummy. But this the last time east will get the lead. A Slow Coup 98 AK7 A K Q8532 KQJ7 6 Q98 J1064 AQJ3 J AK753 Can North/South make any game? In 5, the defense gets three trumps. Can 3NT make? It's hard to see how without a little help from the defense. Declarer has 6 top tricks, with a two more which can set be up in spades and one more in clubs, or, even more slowly, in his long diamond suit. Timing is difficult, however. For example, on a club lead, one entry to the south hand is lost, and when declarer leads a spade from north, east covers with the ten, which blocks the spade suit. What about 4? On a trump lead, win the queen, cash the minor winners, cross with a heart to dummy, then ruff a diamond (overruffing east if necessary), ruff a club, and ruff (or overruff) another diamond. East's best defense is to attempt to keep you from scoring your small trump, so he should ruff ahead of you at each opportunity, so the end position becomes:

3 Bad Fit Deals 3 98 AK7 A K Q8532 KQJ7 6 Q98 J1064 AQJ3 J AK753 Note, you've ruffed once with your ace. The A is still available for one more diamond lead off dummy, and you finally get to ruff with your three, east out of trumps. You score all four trumps in the south hand, a club ruff in north, and five top tricks in the other suits. Amusingly, the three defensive tricks are west's remaining trumps. I believe this extended effort to score the trump three is what Kelsey and Ottlik call an "elopement" play. A Double Strip AK97 AJ AQ6 QJ7 K10852 Q Q KJ74 A3 J53 K842 Can north/south make any game? 3NT doesn't make, on heart leads. Does 5 or 5 make? No - there is no way for declarer to avoid losing a diamond, a heart, and a spade. No, the only game which can make (double dummy) is 4. Suppose west leads a heart. Declarer ducks the first heart, wins the second, and crosses with a diamond to lead a spade. East plays low, and declarer plays the jack, west following low. A club to the jack, and another spade off dummy. This time, east should win, and continue hearts, declarer ruffs leading to this position: AK97 AJ AQ6 QJ7 K10852 Q Q KJ74 A3 J53 K842 Declarer draws east's last trump, pitching a club from dummy, then runs his clubs, west getting caught on the last club: AK97 AJ AQ6 QJ7 K10852 Q Q KJ74 A3 J53 K842 If west ruffs, he is endplayed, and if he pitches, he only gets his spade trick. This is fundamentally the same end position as in our first example. The difference here is that declarer's trump suit was bad enough that west always had a natural trump trick, so maybe it was wrong to force declarer to ruff a heart? What if, instead, the defense adopts a passive defense, leading clubs at every opportunity? Declarer wins the first club in dummy, and leads a spade. East ducks, declarer wins the jack, and crosses with a diamond and leads another spade. East flies the ace and continues clubs. Declarer wins in hand, cashes the spade king, and exits a spade to west. West can safely exit in hearts or clubs. Declarer wins and runs all his non-diamond winners. On the last club, the situation is: AK97 AJ AQ6 QJ7 K10852 Q Q KJ74 A3 J53 K842 West cannot pitch a diamond, so he must pitch a heart. Likewise, east cannot pitch a diamond (or declarer can pin the ten by leading the jack.) So east must pitch a heart. Now declarer

4 Bad Fit Deals 4 exits in hearts and the defense is forced to break the diamond suit, giving declarer an extra trick in the suit. In fact, declarer can engineer one of these two end-positions whatever the defenders do. [ Special thanks to David Desjardin, for this analysis, and Richard Pavlicek for pointing out that my original analysis was wrong. ] A Good 3-3 Fit AK104 AJ6 74 AK84 J76 Q982 Q KQ Q5 J K87 AJ and 5 both lose at least three tricks in the minors. Declarer has 8 top tricks in no trump, and it looks like he should be able to set up a 9th trick somewhere, but it doesn't materialize. The only game which makes is 4, declared by south. On a non-diamond lead, declarer ruffs a spade, draws three rounds of trumps, and cashes the club winners. Declarer then ducks a diamond to west: AK104 AJ6 74 AK84 J76 Q982 Q KQ Q5 J K87 AJ West can take his long trump, but then must attack the diamonds. If he leads a high one, declarer ducks. In any event, declarer will score the ace and jack of diamonds. If west had started with a diamond lead, declarer would duck the first round, and west would have to shift. The end position would be substantially the same. If 4 is declared by north, however, east could lead a diamond and set the contract. A Bad 3-3 Fit A84 A1042 J10 AQ85 KQJ KQJ93 K J AQ8652 K76 This is one of the most perverse examples. 5 and and 5 fail due to two spade losers and a diamond loser. 3NT goes down after two heart leads, which must be ducked, then a shift to spades. But 4 makes when declared by south, precisely because west's spades are too good. West leads a high spade, and declarer wins in dummy, plays the A and ruffs a heart, then crosses with the A and ruffs another heart, then plays the KQ, ending in dummy, and exits a trump, which west must win, leading to this position: A84 A1042 J10 AQ85 KQJ KQJ93 K J AQ875 K76 What is west to do? If he exits a low diamond, declarer wins in dummy, and exits in a high trump, forcing west to lead again from diamonds. If west exits a high diamond, declarer wins in hand, crosses in diamonds, exits with a spade, and west must lead a diamond to declarer's queen. If west takes two rounds of trumps, then exits in diamonds, declarer gets two diamond tricks and the long club. And if west takes one round of trumps, then exits in diamonds, we reach our common end position, the one that keeps showing up in this collection:

5 Bad Fit Deals 5 A84 A1042 J10 AQ85 KQJ KQJ93 K J AQ8652 K76 On the play of the club, west can either ruff and be endplayed, or pitch a diamond. In any event, west only gets one more trick. Chapter II. Slams A Basic Slam 1086 K6 A95 KQJ QJ73 J93 Q52 63 QJ7 A AK A10874 K No trump makes at most 10 tricks with repeated spade leads. Declarer has four club tricks, and two tricks in each other suit. In hearts or diamonds, it is impossible to avoid a trump loser, so if the defense takes its ace off the top, declarer is stuck at 11 tricks. The 6 contract, however, is cold. It is not hard at all to ruff out the hearts, draw trumps, and take your twelve tricks. Another Basic Slam A10432 KJ83 J2 97 K97 J Q Q Q8 A76 AKQ8 AKJ2 6 fails because north/south must lose a heart to the defense, and can't time that loss so that the defense must break the spade suit. 6NT fails because there are nine top tricks and the situation in the spade suit means that suit cannot be set up for extra tricks without losing two spades, while there is only one extra trick in each of hearts and clubs. Indeed, the only slam to make on this deal is 6. Say the defense leads a diamond. Declarer wins the J and plays the AK and ruffs a club, crosses to the A, draws trumps, and ducks a heart. Declarer gets three hearts, a spade, four diamonds, three clubs, and a club ruff. My original line was more complex - thanks to Richard Pavlicek for pointing out this far simpler line. A Variation 8 AK984 A108 QJ QJ Q J63 K AK1094 J7 KQ9 A96 Declarer starts with a mere 8 top tricks, but has many prospects for more in hearts, spades, and clubs. In no trump, declarer can set up two tricks in any of these suits, but must lose a trick in the suit in order to do so. In order to get twelve tricks, then, declarer must lose two tricks. That's not going to be a successful approach to twelve tricks. In hearts, declarer has an inevitable heart loser and an inevitable club loser. In clubs, declarer can't ruff out the hearts or spades without setting up another trump trick for west. The spade contract, however, is another matter. If south declares six spades, the contract can be made. Suppose west leads a diamond (the safest defense.) South wins in hand, crosses to the ace of hearts, and leads the stiff spade off dummy. East split his honors, declarer wins the ace and king and exits with the spade ten, leading to this position: 8 AK984 A108 QJ QJ Q J63 K AK1094 J7 KQ9 A96 If east exits in a minor, south wins in hand, draws the last trump, and takes the ruffing finesse against east in hearts. But what if east leads a low heart? At first, that seems to kill an entry, but that's an illusion. Since east holds the last trump, declarer

6 Bad Fit Deals 6 can afford to win the king, and take the ruffing finesse immediately. Entry Problems AKQ974 A AQ J K108 Q732 KJ84 52 KQJ102 J62 A95 North/South have 13 top tricks - 6 spades, 5 hearts, and two minor aces. But they can't make even twelve tricks in spades or notrump on a club lead - the club ace is the only entry to the hearts, and this lead kills the entry before the heart suit is unblocked. So what slam makes? 6H, of course. Win the club lead, cash the heart ace, and play three spades, ruffing (overruffing east if necessary.) Then draw trumps. North still has the diamond ace as entry finish the spades for twelve tricks. If the defense leads diamonds instead, then the spade ruff isn't needed, and declarer gets all 13 tricks the hands started with. This turns out to be a common reason for playing in a 5-1 fit - entry problems keep you from otherwise scoring your tricks in that suit if played in other denominations. A similar, but subtler, deal: K852 K 754 AQ1043 AQJ7 63 J KQ3 J AQ1092 AJ10 K2 In 6NT, the defense sets up a diamond on opening lead, and cash it when in with the spade ace. In 6C, the diamond lead also kills an entry - without it, the defense cannot draw trumps, then run the hearts. The apparent entry in clubs is an illusion in this contract, because of the need to draw trumps before running hearts. But in 6H, declarer wins the first diamond, unblocks the hearts, crosses back to the king of clubs, draws trumps, then runs clubs, pitching three spades. Finally, declarer sets up his twelfth trick by leading a diamond off dummy. If the defense takes the spade ace first, before shifting to the diamond, then declarer has the twelfth trick in spades, instead. A Basic Squeeze A10 QJ953 Q Q954 K7642 A10 3 J KJ86 8 AK4 AKQJ9 Clearly, 6NT is off the top two hearts. Six diamonds loses a heart and a diamond if the defense forces south to ruff a heart at trick two. But 6C makes. for example, if the defense forces south to ruff in hearts on the second trick, declarer can simply draw trumps, which squeezes east: A10 QJ953 Q Q954 K7642 A10 3 J KJ86 8 AK4 AKQJ9 East, to play to the fourth round of trumps, has to keep four spades and four diamonds, an impossibility. Wrong-sided A2 A1084 AK3 KJ J1093 Q J9842 AQ7 KQ754 KJ Q65 I'll leave it to the reader to determine why 6H, 6S, and 6NT fail. It's rather surprising that 6D makes on this deal, if declared by south. West should lead a heart or club, won in the north hand. Declarer plays king and jack of diamonds, and, whether west covers or not, is left with a tenace over west in the trump suit. Declarer then takes his club and heart winners left in dummy, and crosses with a small heart to hand:

7 Bad Fit Deals A2 A1084 AK3 KJ J1093 Q J9842 AQ7 KQ754 KJ 3 On a low heart from the south hand, west cannot profit from ruffing, so west pitches a spade. Declarer ruffs and plays the diamond ace, pitching a spade. Finally, declarer leads a club off dummy, and west is caught: A2 A1084 AK3 KJ J1093 Q J9842 AQ7 KQ754 KJ Q65 This is essentially the end position we've seen twice before. If west ruffs, he is forced to lead from the spades. If he pitches, declarer just runs his hearts, and west is still forced to pitch spades. In the end, all west scores is his one trump trick. Wrong-sided II Another similar example is: AQJ QJ83 A A105 Q76 K J84 K KJ943 A765 KQ9 Can north/south make 6NT? No, the timing is all wrong - the defense must get a heart and either a diamond or a second heart. 6D is obvious not going to work, losing the heart ace and a trump. Does 6S make? Not if, as is likely, it is declared by north - a diamond lead kills it. But what if it is, improbably, declared by south? 6S by south does indeed make - all declarer needs is a single heart ruff and then he can pitch north's diamond losers on two long hearts and a club. Morton's Fork A86 Q43 AKJ102 Q Q53 K AJ103 KJ72 AJ10 Q K7652 It looks like east/west always have two defensive tricks, but looks can be deceiving. If north declares any slam, of course, east can lead a heart and no more than 11 tricks can be taken. But what if south declares? In clubs, there are obvious trump losers. In hearts, there's the eventual trump loser(s) as well as the ace of clubs. Against a spade contract, west leads a diamond. Declarer can finesse the spade, then play the king and ace of spades then run diamonds, pitching from hand, but what? Nothing he pitches avoids 2 losers in clubs or a club loser and a heart loser. Only 6D makes. Say west takes a passive diamond lead, won in dummy. Declarer draws four rounds of trumps, then leads a low club off dummy and east is caught: A86 Q43 AKJ102 Q Q53 K AJ103 KJ72 AJ10 Q K7652 If east plays the ace, south wins the return, unblocks the clubs then pitches two hearts from dummy on the long spade and the club king. If east ducks, south wins and runs the spades, pitching the club queen from dummy. He then plays ace and jack of hearts, west getting the king, but east never getting the ace. This an example of what is called "Morton's Fork" - east is damned if he takes the ace, and damned if he doesn't.

8 Bad Fit Deals 8 Chapter III. Sacrifices A Simple Example N/S Vul A102 A K10532 AJ87 KQJ J QJ KQ3 A9 KQ103 North can make a grand slam in clubs. Say east leads a safe heart. North wins the heart lead, cashes the top diamonds, and ruffs a diamond high. North crosses with the jack of clubs, and ruffs another diamond high. North then cashes the two hearts hearts, pitching spades from his hand. Finally, north crosses with the club ace and draws east's trumps. If east leads a club instead, then north uses the heart entry to get back after the first diamond ruff. Does the defense have a sacrifice? 7H does not succeed - the defense takes three top hearts immediately then attacks clubs. That kills the west hand, forcing him to ruff, and never gets his spade tricks. East/West can score three trumps and a diamond, but that's it. But 7S is a fine sacrifice, always insured of 5 trump tricks, for Trump Madness N/S Vul 7 Q643 K2 AKQJ J10852 K10985 A2 J874 AQ AKQ4 J If north declares 3NT, there is no way to set him - the defense can only take four red-suit tricks. [If south was declarer, the defense could take a third diamond trick, holding him to 8 tricks.] So that seems to be it for the defense. 4S is a lousy sacrifice; the defense takes the first first three spades, followed by four clubs (south pitching two hearts,) and then a heart ruff. 4H can make 6 tricks, but again that's not good enough. The defense starts with a diamond lead, and the finesse is taken. The diamond ace is taken, followed by two rounds of hearts and the ten of hearts. North wins, and the defense takes their three spade tricks, north pitching clubs. Finally, south leads a high diamond at this position: 7 Q643 K2 AKQJ J10852 K10985 A2 J874 AQ AKQ4 J West can't get more than his two trump tricks, for a total of six tricks. But east/west got one trick for playing in their 7-card fit rather than the 8-card fit, so perhaps the 6-card fit will be worth yet another trick? Indeed, the only good sacrifice on this deal is 4D. What can north/south do? Suppose they lead a diamond. Declarer wins, and exits a club. Another diamond, won again in the east hand. Declarer ruffs a club, plays the ace and king of hearts, cashes the the diamond jack, reaching this position: 7 Q643 f AKQJ J10852 K1092 A2 J874 AQ AKQ4 J Declarer exits with the nine of spades, and south can take his diamonds but eventually must give up a trick to the spade suit. South sneaks by with 7 tricks for North/south can avoid this endplay by playing off four rounds spades at the outset. On the fourth round, west pitches a heart, and north ruffs and exits the diamond king. Declarer wins and leads a top club, and north wins, but has no more trumps. Say north exits a heart. East wins, leads a club, ruffed, followed by the king of hearts and a heart ruffed (with the queen, and south must underruff!) Finally another club is led from east at this position:

9 Bad Fit Deals 9 7 Q643 K2 AKQJ J10852 K10985 A2 J874 AQ AKQ4 J If south ruffs with the ten or nine, west's heart is pitched. If south ruffs with the six, west overruffs. Either way, west scores both remaining trumps, yielding seven tricks total: two hearts, and five trumps. What if the defense takes three spades then exits a diamond? Then south just plays a fourth spade, forcing north to ruff, and achieving the same position as before. Blockage E/W Vul AK AQJ AQ54 KJ7 QJ63 A84 Q K K95 J East/west can make 3NT from either side, because there is no way for the defense to untangle the club suit. North's lack of entries is the flaw. Declarer can lose a trick in diamonds, a trick in spades, and two top clubs, but has nine trick after. If the club ten and jack were switched, 3NT would go down. So perhaps, at favorable vulnerability, north/south should sacrifice in 4S? The defense starts with two spades. Declarer wins the second, but has no time to set up a heart ruff. Declarer gets only one pitch on the clubs, due to the blockage, so must still lose five tricks in the red suits as well as two spades, for down four, If North/South play the contract in clubs, however, the blockage is no problem. The defense attacks hearts, forcing a ruff, and north leads a diamond. East wins, but can't continue hearts, so he exits a diamond, won with the king. The jack of clubs is led, ducked all around, leading to this position: AK10 85 AQJ A QJ 8 Q7 854 K A diamond is led, and west wins. If west leads a red suit winner, declare ruffs, and east pitches a spade. Declarer then runs two rounds of clubs, and then leads a spade. Eventually, north/south score the five clubs, and the diamond and spade kings. This lack of entries is one of the most common reason that a 6-card fit is better for a sacrifice. An Awful Suit None Vul K74 AQ K982 5 A9863 K A8642 KJ 7654 A3 QJ102 J43 Q93 QJ10 South can, with care, make 2NT. I'll leave that to the reader. Perversely, east/west have a sacrifice in clubs. In 3C by east/west, the obvious defense is to lead a trump. East wins the ace, plays the ace of spades, ruffs a spade, crosses back to the diamond king, ruffs another spade, plays the ace of diamonds and another diamond, ruffed with the club three, and finally a fourth round of spades, ruffed in west, and overruffed in north. K74 AQ K982 5 A9863 K A8642 KJ 7654 A3 QJ102 J43 Q93 QJ10 Notice, you've stripped north/south of all but hearts and clubs. They get to take their trumps but then have to concede a heart trick at the end, giving the defense 8 tricks, for -100, if doubled.

10 Bad Fit Deals 10 What Law? E/W Vul KQ KQJ543 Q KJ1052 A A A86 A764 J KQJ108 East/west can make 5 spades, losing just the major aces (pitching a club on the diamond ace.) North/south can only make six tricks in clubs - four clubs and two aces - but that's not the limit of the hand. Would you believe north/south can make nine tricks in diamonds, with the 7-0 split? Say west leads a major. Which is irrelevant, so say spades. Declarer wins, and leads high clubs, west ducks one round and wins the second round. West leads a heart, again won in the south hand, and two clubs are run, pitching hearts from north, leading to: KQ A A86 A764 J 9 East's hand is irrelevant, with west holding all trumps. A heart is led from south, and west must ruff, but how high? It's a losing proposition to ruff with the ace. A ruff with the ten is overruffed, and north exits a spade, west forced to ruff. West is on lead at: KQ A A86 A764 J KQJ108 West can cash the ace of diamond and exit a diamond, but dummy finesses the diamond, and exits again in spades, and west is forced again to lead from his diamond suit. West could lead diamonds earlier, but there is no way for him to prevent declarer from scoring 4 diamonds along with three clubs and the two major aces. That's nine tricks, if you're still with me. Since East/West make 11 tricks in their seven card spade suit, and North/South make 9 tricks in their six card diamond suit, that's 20 total tricks on a hand with 13 total trumps.