Unfriendly play

DECEPTIVE plays with jack-nine, king-jacknine or ace-jack-nine are fairly well known, for example:

When South leads low to dummy, the jack from West may induce declarer to win with the queen and finesse the eight on the way back. This would be the successful line if West had the doubleton ace-jack.

THERE are other plays of this nature where the object is not only to win a non-existent trick, but also to create an entry problem for declarer:

	South Dealer	ª	8 5 3
	N-S Game	©	10 8 4
		¨	9 7 4 2
		§	J 6 5
			N
ª	J 7 6 2			ª	Q 10 9 4
©	6 5		W E	©	J 9
¨	10 8 6			¨	K 5 3
§	A K 9 4			§	Q 8 7 2
			S
		ª	A K
		©	A K Q 7 3 2
		¨	A Q J
		§	10 3

South battles his way to Four Hearts and the defence begins with three rounds of clubs. South ruffs and lays down the ace of hearts. If all play low he draws trumps, enters dummy on the third round and tries to pick up a doubleton king of diamonds. No luck, but he has ten tricks.

A simple jack of hearts from East on the first round of trumps might have a surprising result. Seeing the chance to finesse twice in diamonds, South plays low to the eight ... and goes one down.

ON the next deal East must have his wits about him at trick one:

	West Dealer	ª	J 8 6
	Game All	©	K 6 2
		¨	10 7 3
		§	Q J 8 4
			N
ª	5 3			ª	Q 10
©	A 10 7		W E	©	J 8 5 3
¨	Q 8 4 2			¨	K J 9
§	K 9 5 3			§	10 7 6 2
			S
		ª	A K 9 7 4 2
		©	Q 9 4
		¨	A 6 5
		§	A

Defending against Four Spades, West begins nervously with a low trump. Dummy plays low, East the queen, and declarer the ace. Taking the queen of spades to be a singleton, South sees a safe way to ten tricks: ace of clubs, spade to the eight, run the queen of clubs, discarding a diamond. He expects this to produce six tricks in spades, two in clubs and one each in the reds.

But alas! East produces the ten of spades on the second round and advances the jack of diamonds. That's one down, and if the ace of hearts had been on the other side South would have been two down.

WHAT about the king from king-jack? Look at this:

	East Dealer	ª	8 5 2
	Love All	©	Q 10 3
		¨	A K J 3
		§	J 7 2
			N
ª	A 9 3			ª	Q J 10 4
©	8 4		W E	©	K J
¨	9 7 4 2			¨	10 8 6
§	! 10 5 3			§	K 9 6 4
			S
		ª	K 7 6
		©	A 9 7 6 5 2
		¨	Q 5
		§	A 8

Playing in Four Hearts, South wins the club lead and lays down the ace of hearts. When East's jack falls, South plays three rounds of diamonds, discarding a club, and a fourth diamond, which East has to ruff with the king of hearts; contract just made.

Now suppose that East drops a friendly king of hearts under the ace. Seeing eleven tricks on top, possibly twelve, South leads a heart to the ten ... and this time finishes two down.

When you know that the cards lie well for declarer, you should be on the look-out for the chance to deceive.

My BOLS bridge tip is:

There are times when the jack from jack-nine, the queen from queen-ten
and the king from king-jack may achieve a brilliant result in defence.