Bridge Movie: Yarborough Time

by Phillip Martin, Bronxville, NY

Some of the hardest defensive problems arise when you have a Yarborough, especially if the auction is uninformative. So you are not happy to find yourself on lead with

9 8 5 2 10 8 7 5 9 7 4 9 7,

after the auction one notrump (15-17)--six notrump. What do you lead?

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Obviously there is no clear answer; any lead could cost a trick. One school advises leading from length to decrease the chance that you are breaking a key suit for declarer. Another advises leading from shortness. When your doubleton lead picks up an honor in partner's hand, some of the time declarer was going to count out the hand and guess it anyway. You decide to give the latter theory a try and lead the nine of clubs. The following dummy appears:

The play proceeds nine of clubs, four, six, jack; deuce of clubs, seven, queen, ace. Partner returns the ten of clubs, declarer follows with the three. How might each of your possible discards cost a trick?

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A spade discard can't cost double dummy, but it will cost in practice if declarer has ace-ten-third. A heart discard will cost if declarer has king-queen-fourth. A diamond discard will cost if partner has the queen and jack and is then exposed to a squeeze. Surely partner would avoid giving you this problem if he could. So we must assume that the club return was necessary. First, let's hypothesize that partner is defending passively and that a club was his only safe exit. In that event, what do we know about partner's hand?

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That he has the spade king. A red suit return could be dangerous from any holding, but a spade return would be dangerous only from the king. What if the club return is an active defense? What if he is trying to cut the communication for a squeeze In that event, what can we conclude about partner's hand?

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That he has a red-suit king. If partner has the queen-jack of a red suit, cutting the communication in clubs accomplishes nothing. Only if partner has a red king could declarer's club entry be crucial to a squeeze. So whatever partner is up to, he must have one of the three kings. On that assumption, what is your safest discard?

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A diamond. If partner has the club ace and a king, he can't have the queen-jack of diamonds as well. Your nine-third of diamonds cannot be needed to stop a squeeze. Accordingly, you pitch a diamond. Declarer proceeds to make six. Had you pitched anything else, he would have gone down. Our conclusion that partner held a king is correct and there is nothing remotely unusual about declarer's one notrump opening. What is declarer's hand?

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For your pitch to matter, partner must have the diamond jack and your pitch must have affected the play of the suit. Therefore, declarer's hand is

A K Q 4 2 K Q 8 5 3 J 3 2.

If you hold your diamonds, declarer's percentage play is to finesse against the jack. Once you discard a diamond, he should play for the suit to split.

Reprinted by permission of The Bridge World.

© 1992 by Bridge World Magazine Inc.

Afterthoughts

What I like about this deal is it shows how far you can go in reconstructing the unseen hands even with relatively little information. Unfortunately, I didn't go far enough, as a reader pointed out in a letter to the editor. Edgar, for whatever reason, didn't publish the letter, but he did forward it to me:

To the Editor:

...[Summary of problem omitted]

A diamond is suggested as the safest discard, citing that a spade, while not wrong at double-dummy, will be wrong in practice when declarer holds A10x. The actual outcome of the deal demonstrates that it is possible for the diamond pitch to be wrong. My question is, is it really possible for a spade discard to give away the contract? Consider declarer's relevant holdings:

A 10 x K Q x x K Q x J 3 2.

Declarer will misguess the spades, but, even if you pitched a diamond, you will be squeezed in the majors on the third round of diamonds.

A 10 x K Q x K Q x x J 3 2.

A club-diamond squeeze. Declarer might err by cashing dimaonds before spades, going for the club-spade squeeze, but not if you pitched a diamond.

A 10 x K J x K Q J x J 3 2.

On discovering the spade situation, declarer will enjoy practicing a double squeeze to guarantee his contract.

A 10 x K J x K Q J J 8 3 2.

Okay, maybe if you pitch a diamond, declarer would try a major-suit squeeze instead of taking the heart finesse. But Martin had already given partner credit for being thoughtful enough to return a diamond in a situation like this.

It seems to me that the right double-dummy discard is also the best real-life discard.

Respectfully yours,

Rod Roark

Marietta, GA