Tricolore

Hi all

Things are not bad here. We made a short trip to Colorado last weekend. Nothing beats fresh powder! And this time I didn’t even break a bone. This weekend I have to sacrifice a Trentemøller session in SF to Jerry Seinfeld in Oakland. Not the easiest of choices, if I may say so.

Here’s a challenging defensive problem from the GNT Open.

West

North

East

South

 

pass

pass

2

pass

21

pass

2NT2

pass

33

pass

3

pass

3NT

a.p.

 

1. Waiting
2. 22-23 hcp, balanced
3. Puppet Stayman

You sit East and await partner’s lead. The 3 (attitude leads) hits the table and this is what you see:

A quick analysis shows that partner holds roughly ten hcp, a five card suit and probably has led from a 3 card suit. Declarer goes into the tank for a full five minutes before calling small in dummy. You add the 8 to the pot and declarer wins with the Ace.

Now declarer plays Ace and Queen, partner winning the latter one with the King. What do you discard?

Before answering that question try to visualize declarer’s hand. If declarer holds three that suit looks far more attractive to set up than those . So declarer holds only two. Well, that paints declarer’s hand almost perfectly: 5-2-2-4.

You can hold on to both round suits now and pitch a . Declarer doesn’t have the entries to set up and cash dummy’s .

In the end declarer will end up one trick short because nothing works out.

So where did declarer do wrong?

If he had unblocked Ace & King before touching the , East would have been caught in a genuine three-suited squeeze. But declarer still needs to read the complicated position correctly.