Throw Your Winner!!!

In a recent tournament, I found an interesting board as displayed below. The bidding is using precision system, South open 1D, North 1H, South rebid 1NT (12-14) and North jump to 3NT. West lead spade, Declarer hold up for 2 round and win the 3rd round while discarding heart from dummy.

		Dummy
		♠ 7 6
		♥ 10 6 5 4
		♦ A K Q 10 9 5
		♣ 6
	You
	♠ J954
	♥ K92
	♦ 43
	♣ A J 43

Contract 3NT. Declarer then run 6 diamond tricks, what's defensive plan?.

A novice defender will give an encourage signal for heart by discarding the ♥9 and then leave the ♣ A alone. Declarer then exit with club to west, who cash the spade and has to play a heart to the fork. Even if declarer can read the position correctly, west actually could beat the contract.

Here are the logic.

West is the victim of the end-play. If declarer hold the ♣K outside of ♥AQ, nothing can be done. Contract can't be beaten. However if declarer just has the ♣Q instead of ♣K, then can throw his winner and retain the ♣Ax. He will win with ♣A and play club to east ♣K who will play the heart through declarer. So, sometimes the winner shall be threw. Here are the complete distribution

	♠ 7 6
	♥ 10 6 5 4
	♦ A K Q 10 9 5
	♣ 6
West		East
♠ J 9 5 4		♠ K Q 3 2
♥ K 9 2		♥ 873
♦ 4 3		♦ 76
♣ A J 4 3		♣ K x x x
	Declarer
	♠ A 10 8
	♥ A Q 6
	♦ J 5 2
	♣ Q 10 7 2

Losing Squeeze Card

Playing with robot will make you stress. I found an interesting hand during my play in Bridge Base Online (BBO) with a robot there.

Partner robot, open a strong NT (15-17) and i have the following hand,

♠ K Q 3 ♥ Q J 9 ♦ A K 3 ♣ K 9 5 4

I directly bid 6NT. Here are the hands.

	Dummy
	♠ K Q 3
	♥ Q J 9
	♦ A K 3
	♣ K 9 5 4
	Declarer
	♠ A 9 8 2
	♥ A K 8 6
	♦ J 4 2
	♣ A 7

Robot won with the King di dummy?!. Then run 4 times hearts. West follow 3 times, discard one of its clubs. Robot now continue with 3 round of spade, unfortunately the suit didn't break evenly, when East still hold the last spade. Meanwhile robot has been destroy the club establishment as it has been threw on the 4th heart although West now only 2 club left before cashing ♣ A.

Robot try to drop the diamond, but the queen still in their seat and robot fail to land the contract.

Actually, there are many ways to land the contract. After cashing the ♣ A, actually contract is still in controlled situation. Knowing that West hold 5 clubs, robot can play its losing squeeze card, spade, squeezing West if he hold the ♦ Q or endplaying East if he hold that card.

The simple way is to let west win the first trick. He will be squeeze when robot runs its winner. Here are the complete distribution.

	Dummy

	♠ K Q 3
	♥ Q J 9
	♦ A K 3
	♣ K 9 5 4
West		East
♠ 5 4		♠ J1076
♥ 10 3 2		♥ 754
♦ Q 7 6		♦ 10985
♣ QJ1063		♣ 82
	Declarer
	♠ A 9 8 2
	♥ A K 8 6
	♦ J 4 2
	♣ A 7