Gryphon's Bridge Writeup: January 5, 2004

Jim Plank & Kevin Wilson

Discarding on a opponent's slam

A quick hand from Maryville's Monday game. I'm changing a card to make it a little more challenging. The fundamental question is: how should you and partner discard on slam hands where you don't really know where declarer's final tricks are coming from? You're looking at:

   S T43
   H 72
   D T63
   C KT964

And the bidding goes:

    LHO  You  RHO  Pard
    	      2C   P
    2H   P    2S   P
    4N   P    5D   X
    6S   P    P    P

Partner's double has made your lead easy -- you lead a low diamond (you don't have an honor, but you are showing count). Dummy tables:

Low, ace, low. Partner returns the DQ, king, six, seven. Now declarer leads three high spades, and on the second spade, partner plays the three of clubs. Dummy sheds a heart. On the third spade, partner discards the eight of clubs, and dummy a club.

So declarer started with eight spades, and is now going to continue running them. You have to figure out:

What will your pitches be?
How can partner help you?
How you can help partner?

What do you know so far? Declarer started with eight spades, either the stiff ace of clubs or ace little (with partner's pitches, there are only two clubs unseesn), and at least two diamonds to the king. Partner has the jack. If declarer has Kx of hearts, the hand is over (8 spades, 1 club, 1 diamond, 2 hearts), so for you to set this hand, either partner must have the king, or declarer has the stiff king, and doesn't have an entry to the board to cash his ace.

In either case, are there any dangers? You have clubs under control, and partner has diamonds, and (hopefully) hearts under control. Can he squeeze either one of you? Yes! He can squeeze partner in hearts and diamonds. Look at a potential starting position:

          S 8
	  H KQJ65
	  D AQJx
	  C 832

   S 2            S AKQJ9765
   H AT984        H 3
   D 872          D K9x
   C QJ75         C A

          S T43
          H 72
          D T63
          C KT964

If declarer runs spades and cashes the ace of clubs, partner will have to pitch all of his diamonds to guard the king of hearts. That will make declarer's nine of diamonds good.

Kevin:

This hand is another reason not to play MUD (or Middle, Up, Down) leads...if you lead the middle and then don't play up on the queen continuation, partner will likely play you for a doubleton diamond and if he/she is counting like you then he MIGHT hold diamonds and MIGHT play declarer for a heart void. If you do play middle, up then the squeeze is in effect.

The stiff king of hearts is immaterial. If you couldn't hold diamonds then any position would include a classic double squeeze. With 3 cards to go dummy will hold Ax of hearts and a club, declarer 1 spade, 1 heart, and 1 diamond. When he cashes the last spade you will have to throw a heart, dummy a club and then your partner would be squeezed in diamonds and hearts.

Therefore, you need to:

Keep both the ten of diamonds and the king of clubs.
Communicate to partner what is going on.

So -- we're currently here:

   S -         
   H AT98-    
   D 8--     
   C QJ7-   

          S ---
          H 72
          D T--
          C KT964

Declarer runs five more spades, and your pitches should be:

The nine of clubs, showing partner you like clubs (partner pitches his last club, dummy the 8D)
The two of hearts, showing partner you don't like hearts (partner pitches the HQ, dummy the H8). Looks like we have to hope declarer has the stiff KH.
The seven of hearts. If declarer has a stiff king, partner has five, and will be very happy to see that seven. Now partner knows that declarer has the stiff king too. Dummy sheds the 7C. Partner discards the H6.
The six of clubs. This will show, when you play the C4 next time that you started with five clubs. This is helpful because partner should be able to figure out that declarer has the stiff king of hearts and one club -- it's save to pitch a diamond. Dummy pitches a heart, partner the H3 (confirming that he started with five hearts).

Kevin:

Your partner should be communicating to you well. Partner must throw ALL 3 of his/her clubs. Without this information I would be tempted to hold hold 2 clubs and the D10. One other point, as long as we are going deeply into this... my first discard should be attitude in clubs. But my 2nd and 3rd discards in clubs should be????

Suit preference. I can stop diamonds so I should play low high in clubs (the outstand suits for the suit preference are diamonds=LOW & hearts=HIGH) on discards #2 & #3. This is advanced but worth pointing out. If partner knows they are not going to be squeezed, great. But if you can tell him that there is a legimate squeeze position then maybe he can discard in an order to make declarer misguess the actual position.

Perhaps so -- frankly, I like to keep it attitude / count / suit-preference in that order, only skipping one when it's unnecessary. Perhaps the attitude card in clubs is unnecessary (if declarer has the CK, he should be claiming). So the club discards could be count, then suit-preference. Whatever, you and your partner should have agreements about these things, and it probably doesn't pay to get too creative, since a slip-up on a hand like this can be a 13-imp swing in a team game.

Here's the position now:

          S -
	  H J5---
	  D --J8
	  C ---

   S -            S -------5
   H AT---        H K
   D ---          D 9
   C QJ--         C A

          S ---
          H --
          D T--
          C KT--4

Declarer now cashes the CA, and partner pitches the D8. Finally, declarer cashes the S5. You play the CT, dummy the CQ, and now it's time for partner's crucial play. Fortunately, partner knows that you've held onto a diamond for some reason, so now partner should shed the DJ, and the hand is over. Declarer will overtake the HK with the ace and it's down one.

Note, although you didn't take a trick, your play was crucial to setting this hand, because you:

Figured out how declarer could be set.
Figured out that you needed to keep the DT.
Communicated to partner what was going on.

Amazingly, if you didn't have the DT, declarer will make it. Maybe in that case, partner will find the brilliant heart switch at trick two......

Kevin:

Its not SO amazing, is it? We overbidders have to justify our overbidding somehow don't we??? This is a great hand to declare and find a squeeze. Makes bridge great!

In the Maryville game, the cards were easier for the defense (you held the QJx of diamonds, and partner ATxx), but still two declarers out of thirteen made six.

Kevin:

I'm not sure it was a great double of 5 diamonds. A heart lead dooms declarer instantly and a spade makes it more difficult to get his timing for a squeeze. I usually reserve these doubles to show AK, KQ or KQT where this is the trick we need to set up and hopefully have an entry to cash. In fact I usually have the entry myself so I don't deflect partner from his natural lead. Little is worse than thinking you are smart only to deflect partner from the natural best lead onto your lead which allows the contract to make.