Turkey Bowl Defense

     by Rowen Bell, Chicago IL

Here's an interesting matchpoint defense problem, taken from the Friday afternoon pairs game at the November 2006 Turkey Bowl sectional in Aurora IL.

As West, you hold:  KQJ6  T74  5  JT942

Your opponents arrive at 3NT by South after an uncompetitive and artificial strong club auction. Your left-hand opponent, North, has shown 16+ points and has suggested holding 5+ hearts. South has shown 8-11 points with six or more diamonds and exactly four spades, and he has denied heart support.

You make the normal lead of the K and dummy hits with

   843   AQJ62   A   AQ87

On your spade lead, partner plays the 7 and declarer the 2. You continue with the Q, producing the 9 from partner and the 5 from declarer. What do you lead at trick three?

* * * *

From the bidding, you know that South is left with the A10 after the first two tricks. Consequently, if you play a third round of spades into his tenace, that presents South with an additional spade trick, one which he could never take if left to his own devices.

Nevertheless, a spade is the winning continuation at trick three. The full deal was:

At teams, North-South should reach 5D, which is an easy make (a second heart trick can be established for the 11th winner). At pairs, however, it is reasonable for North-South to play 3NT, hoping that the blockage in diamonds will not be fatal.

If West leads anything but a spade on trick three, then North can win with dummy's ace, cash dummy's other two aces, return to hand with the A and run the diamonds. This gives South 10 tricks and a good board, beating the pairs in 5D.

Watch what happens if West plays a third round of spades instead. This presents South with a second spade trick, true; but it also forces South to use up his only entry to hand before the diamonds have been unblocked.

South's counter to this defensive thrust is a jettison play: After winning the third round of spades, South plays a fourth round of spades, discarding dummy's A.  Now, South can attempt to run the diamond suit.

If diamonds were splitting 3-2, then South would have 11 tricks, and the third round of spades would have given East-West a bottom board. However, with diamonds failing to split, it is North-South who are on the path to a bad board.

After cashing three top diamonds and finding that the suit won't run, South's best play is to throw East in with a diamond on trick eight.With five tricks to play, dummy is left with  AQJ  AQ, and East has to make a lead from  K98 or K5. The reader may verify that no matter how the play proceeds from this point, declarer will end up with four of the remaining five tricks. This gives South only nine tricks, tying the pairs in 5D and losing to pairs who were in 3NT and received any other defense.

Is it reasonable for West to find the "Greek gift" defense of continuing spades at trick three? Perhaps. West knows that diamonds are splitting badly for declarer. West also knows that if South's diamonds are strong enough to be a source of tricks, then South will not hold either of the rounded-suit kings; hence, the A is South's only entry to hand and needs to be attacked, even at the cost of a trick.

On the other hand, the spade play could work out badly for West. If South's diamonds were slightly stronger -- say, if the 10 and 8 were interchanged in this layout -- then the spade play would hand declarer an undeserved eleventh trick. Also, if South's diamonds were weaker, then declarer might be scrambling to find nine tricks on a misfit hand, and the additional spade trick could give declarer the contract.