Great Play, Small Gain, No Profit

by Phillip Alder

How can declarer find a great play to make his contract, but it lead to only a small gain and no net profit? Read on.

This deal was lucky thirteen in Round 15.

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	♠ A J 10 9 6 3 2 ♥ 8 5 ♦ Q J 9 ♣ J
♠ – ♥ A Q J 10 9 7 2 ♦ 7 ♣ A K 8 6 2		♠ K 8 7 5 4 ♥ – ♦ K 10 6 5 4 2 ♣ Q 5
	♠ Q ♥ K 6 4 3 ♦ A 8 3 ♣ 10 9 7 4 3

West	North	East	South
Sontag	Lasut	Weichsel	Manoppo
	2♦	Pass	2♠
4♥	Pass	Pass	Pass

That was the auction in the open room. Two diamonds was the Multi, an unusual choice with a good seven-card suit. When South responded Two Spades, which usually promises some values and heart length, Alan Sontag (West) devalued his hand slightly, settling for Four Hearts.

Henky Lasut (North) led his singleton jack of clubs. Declarer won in hand with his ace, cashed the ace of hearts, and continued with the nine of hearts. Eddy Manoppo (South) won with his king and exited with a club, North discarding a spade. Declarer ruffed a spade in his hand and, confident that South had the ace of diamonds, ran his trumps to reach this end-position:

	♠ A J ♥ – ♦ Q J 9 ♣ –
♠ – ♥ 7 ♦ 7 ♣ K 8 6		♠ K 8 ♥ – ♦ K 10 6 ♣ –
	♠ – ♥ – ♦ A 8 ♣ 10 9 7

On the final trump, the dummy released a diamond, but what could South discard? If he threw a club, declarer would play on clubs, throwing spades from the dummy and scoring the king of diamonds at trick thirteen. But when South released a diamond, Sontag exited in that suit. South won with his ace and led the ten of clubs, but West ducked, leaving South to lead from the nine-seven of clubs into the king-eight: Plus 620.

That was very nicely played. Note two things, though. If North leads the queen of diamonds, he can defeat the contract. If declarer plays low from the dummy, North shifts to either a trump or his club. And if West covers the queen of diamonds with dummy's king, South wins with his ace anddefeats the contract by returning anything but the king of hearts(!) or a diamond (declarer discards a club from his hand). If declarer makes the mistake of winning the first trick in the dummy with the queen of clubs, he should fail. He ruffs a spade to hand, cashes the ace of hearts and continues with a second high heart. South wins with his king, cashes the ace of diamonds, and exits with a trump. West is forced to lead clubs from his hand. Was this a big swing? Sort of. This was the auction in the Closed Room:

West	North	East	South
Sacul	Bates	Sawiruddin	Stansby
	3♠	Pass	Pass
4NT	Pass	6♦	Pass
6♥	Pass	Pass	Dble
Pass	Pass	7♣	Dble
Pass	Pass	Pass

In his unappetizing contract, declarer went for 1/100. This gave USA1 17 IMPs. If Sontag had gone one down, the U.S. team would have gained ‘only’ 14 IMPs. And to make matters worse, no victory points were at stake. USA1 won the match by 2 IMPs. If they had lost by 1, it would still have been the same 15-15 tie.