Safety Play
I had a call from a friend the other day. He asked me “What is the best way to play 98x opposite AQxxx?”. I thought that I knew the answer, but told him that I would run it through my (it is not really mine) Suit Play program to be sure. I did: the answer was to cash the Ace, then cross and play low to the Queen. As an interesting aside, if you add the 7, Suit Play indicates that the best line of play is to run the 9; presuming that loses to the Jack or 10, cross and run the 8.
I was playing with this same person as partner a day or so later when we were dealt the following hand at matchpoints.
I was declarer in the West seat and received received the Jack of spades as the opening lead. I won it in the dummy and took stock. There really didn’t seem to be much to this hand. If I can hold my trump losers to one, I’ll make five easily. This trump suit has an uncanny resemblance to the one discussed earlier. Unless the ♥ KJ is doubleton onside, I must lose at least one trump trick. Since the game is matchpoints, I suppose that I should play for that. I’ll be able to see whether there is any chance for that when I make my first trump play from dummy at trick two. Other that that, I think that I will first play small to the Ace as a safety play. I can then enter dummy with a spade and lead a second trump towards my (now) Qxxx. One does not usually take safety plays at matchpoints, but this one is surely indicated, at least I thought so.
The roof fell in! You can follow the play of the next few tricks by successively pressing the Next button above. North ruffed the spade at trick three, played Ace and another club; South ruffed with the King, and led another spade, scoring North’s Jack of hearts. There was still the Ace of clubs to lose. I had contrived to go down one when the hand was cold for five by simply taking the heart finesse at trick two. I had absolutely no warning of the 7-1 spade split, nor of the 6-1 club split. South had wisely not bid her seven card spade suit, nor North his six card club suit. Can I find a modicum sympathy for my line?
To see the virtual traveller, click here. I did not do as badly as I thought I was going to do.
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Hi Chuck,
This is really an insidious hand. See Ross Taylor’s latest blog post for what happened when he and Danny played the deal against myself and Darren.
I do sympathize with you, with no warning the JS looks like a harmless lead. Matchpoints can be a greedy game. Sometimes, Flight A players go down in contracts that a Flight B player wouldn’t because of playing the percentages.
Sad but true!
Keep on truckin’
Since I was sitting North when Chuck declared the board, I greatly enjoyed that hand!
Matchpoints I lead a heart to the Q….
Imps or especially rubber bridge, automatic to lead a heart to the Ace and a low heart to the 10…your welcome
Interesting hand-N has only 5 clubs and has no reason to enter auction at any time. Some East players will open light and proceed to get ovwerboard(as did about 20% of the field). I do not like this 11 point opening for the basic reason that my next call will be troublesome. South should never preempt with this type of holding. It will most often give the opps more information than your partner-usually it leads to a bad lead from pard and occasionally lead to a bottom(witnes the -800 to the one EW pair who somehow managed to stay in 3sx), Even if East passes and W opens 1 heart some pairs will still get in trouble by overevaluating the holdings-any how, in 4H W should not take a safety play-this is Match points. Even if W decides to take the safety play the correct entry to dummy is the D ace not a second spade. After chucking the small club on the D Q W then leads up to the HQ and will practically always make at least 4
You played that like a little old lady…do you want a hug?
To Bruce-who-wants-to-give-me-a-hug:
A LOL would have played a heart to the Queen at trick 2 and wrapped up 11 tricks. The problem was that I failed to play the hand like a LOL.
To Bruce Gowdy:
Why should I take the heart finesse by playing a heart to the Queen at trick 2 just because it is matchpoints? I cannot possibiliby play hearts for no losers unless the KJ are doubleton in the pocket, and I know THAT is not happening when South follows with the 3 of hearts at trick 2. That play comes under the heading of a practice finesse: one that results in taking the same number of tricks whether it wins or loses. Actually, it might result in taking fewer tricks; if it loses to a singleton King, I might lose an extra trump trick, depending upon how I play hearts in the follow-up play.
Why is it better to cross in diamonds, taking a quick pitch? That runs into heavy water if diamonds break either 7-0 or 6-1, a 7.30% probablity. Using spades as the re-entry only fails if spades are 7-1, a 2.86% probability.
Well Chuck I will agree with you on one point. Once you lead a heart to the Ace, safety play, you can avoid the mistake that the others wish to make by crossing in diamonds, pitching and leading a heart towards the Q. They deserve their minus with that play when they find KJ9X over their Q. Run your program:
KJ9X ON SIDE STILL WINS TWO TRUMP TRICKS IF ONSIDE WHETHER YOU LEAD HEART TOWARDS THE Q OR TOWARDS THE 10, SO LEADING TOWARDS THE 10 WORKS AFTER CASHING THE ACE..
LEADING TOWARDS THE 10 LOSES ONLY 2 HEART TRICKS IF KJ9x ARE OFFSIDE ( OVER Q ) VERSUS THREE IF YOU CASH ACE AND CROSS AND LEAD TOWARDS Q
LEADING TOWARDS 10 LOSES 1 HEART IF THE K IS DOUBLETON EITHER SIDE
THUS, YOU LOSE TWO HEART TRICKS SPECIALLY IF THE J IS DOUBLETON BY LEADING TO THE 10. YOU PICK UP A LOSER SPECIALLY IF J IS DOUBLETON ONSIDE.
YOU MUST PLAY THE Q IF YOU LEAD TOWARDS IT AND THE K OR J DOES NOT APPEAR, WHICH YOU MAY DECIDE NOT TO DO
SO, I WOULD GUESS IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A SAFETY PLAY AT MATCHPOINTS, YOU WOULD LEAD TO THE ACE AND THEN LEAD TO THE 10….
AS I SAID BEFORE, THIS IS THE RIGHT AND AUTOMATIC PLAY AT IMPS OR RUBBER BRIDGE
What’s the next quiz?
The 10 of hearts at trick 2 is an alternative. It has a chance to pick up the suit if RHO fails to cover from KJ4 or KJ3, which would be an error on his part if his partner had singleton Q.
Leading the 10 also picks up singleton 9 on the left.
There must have been alot of old ladies playing in this game since 11 players made 650 by taking the heart finesse.It is the correct play at match points. If the queen loses there will still be options on the next heart play but these are not relevant to the current hand. If one decides to make a safety play by playing the ace the correct lead back to dummy is the dia Ace-then a heart up to the queen.. The proponents of KJ9x offside will be aghast at this play but the question is are you playing to win(like a little old lady) or to tie or lose ? The second spade lead to dummy appears normal but that still loses the overtrick if W can ruff the third spade. Finally at rubber bridge I lead the heart ace and then low to the 10.
I cannot see anything wrong with laying down the ace at the first opportunity. This will cater for any stiff honour scenario. If the hearts spilt 4-1, hopefully the stiff may be the 9, and therefore with the 4 hearts sitting under the five, there may still only be one loser in that suit. if the four hearts to the KJ are sitting over the AQ to five, you’re buggered anyway. HBG
I don’t see a problem with what you did except that in this case half the field will take the finesse because they don’t know what a safety play is. I am a great believer that good bridge can get awful results and bad bridge can get good results.Your problem is the result not the play. I think the safety play is more suited for teams whereas in duplicate not quite as necessary unless of course everyone is taking it which is really unlikely.
Matchpoints I lead a heart to the Q….
Imps or especially rubber bridge, automatic to lead a heart to the Ace and a low heart to the 10…your welcome
Returning to dummy.
Obivously its right to use the diamond entry but I think South is going to work out to play another spade staring at that holding 11 times out of ten after winning the K of trumps.
Is partner really leading JX because they hold JXX of trumps (you should pretty much have the trump position worked out once declarer makes the safety play).
As for taking the safety play.. as long as South conceals the Ten and the 9 (likely), it seems very difficult to play for 7-1 spades over extra protection against 4-1 hearts, with no information in the auction.
My guess is a fair number of tables opened a spade preempt which changes the math dramatically, and that a fair number of players ignored the safety play of 4-1 trumps (either because they didn`t see it, because they felt it was against the field, or because table presence said something was amiss in spades).
As for matchpoints vs IMPS.. I don`t see why it should matter here, as in both cases we are looking at overtrick vs making.
All other things being equal, the highest percentage chance of an overtrick is to risk spades 7-1 rather than risk hearts 4-1.