The World Championships were held in Wroclaw Poland. Thanks to a pandemic delay, this was the second World Championships held in 2022. Many events were Vugraphed on BBO, including a familiar face in the finals of the Senior Teams.
My former partner, David Berkowitz (It seems wrong that we’re all seniors now, but I digress), playing with the great Jeff Meckstroth were part of Team Goodman facing off against Team Vytas.
Goodman trailed heading into the final session, when this exciting deal came up. I’ll give you David’s hand first for the auction, then you’ll see Jeff Meckstroth’s problem later on.
(Hands rotated for convenience)
David, West, held:
A1096 
K 
J3 
QJ9862
White against Red
| WEST | NORTH | EAST | SOUTH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dbl | Pass | |
| ? |
Your first question is: what now? You could certainly pass, but are you prepared for what will happen next?
Yes. You should pass. If they want to play 1x, then you are very happy. If they run… you can give partner a chance to double. You may not make a game your way, so you should consider going for penalties, particularly at this vulnerability. Bidding any number of spades lets the opponents off the hook.
The auction continues, excitingly:
| WEST | NORTH | EAST | SOUTH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dbl | Pass | |
| Pass | Rdbl | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | Pass | Dbl | Pass |
| ? |
North’s redouble asked for “rescue”. It asks that South bid his longest suit. South runs to 1.
You pass, with a doubleton in the trump suit. Another pass and partner doubles. This should be for penalties since we’ve already made a penalty pass of 1. South passes. Do you sit or run? You have a doubleton–not bad! You should pass to trust partner.
Surprisingly, North redoubles for rescue again! This time South bids hearts, your singleton. it goes Pass-Pass-Dbl to you. The full auction to this point:
| WEST | NORTH | EAST | SOUTH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dbl | Pass | |
| Pass | Rdbl | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | Pass | Dbl | Pass |
| Pass | Rdbl | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | Pass | Dbl | Pass |
| ? |
Now what?
They’ve been running. It feels like this is a desperate place to be. You have a singleton, but it is the singleton K. Partner might even have five trumps. Pass and try to beat it. David passed and the auction finally ended, after five rounds of bidding, in 1x.
Here’s your last question as David: what is your lead?
It’s a nearly iron-clad rule that you should lead a trump against doubled partscores. David is a firm believer in this rule and started with the K.
Let’s now switch to Jeff Meckstroth’s seat as East. Forget David’s hand.
| Vul:N-S Dlr: North |
K732 A1082 K K743 |
|
| Lead: K |
EAST (YOU)
|
We see that North was always planning on this auction (once David passed 1x, he planned to redouble for rescue and then again if partner bid 1).
Declarer ducks, and we do too (don’t waste the 9). David plays the 3. You win the A. It’s clearly safe to play one more round of trump with the Q. Declarer wins the ace, partner throwing a low club. Declarer plays a spade, low by you, Q by declarer and partner wins the A. Partner plays a low club, dummy plays low (darn!), you win the A and declarer plays low.
This is the position, with you on lead:
| Vul:N-S Dlr: North |
K72 108 K74 |
|
| J8 J9 9742 |
What should you do?
Yes, if you play hearts, you won’t take two heart tricks. You should still do it (and Jeff Meckstroth did). Look at the full deal at this point:
The full deal:
| Vul:N-S Dlr: North |
K72 108 K74 |
|
| 1096 J QJ98 |
J8 J9 9742 |
|
| 4 76 Q1086 10 |
If you play J and then the 9. Declarer is trapped in the dummy. They’ll take a total of two heart tricks, one spade and one club. If you play, say, a spade (or diamond), declarer can score two diamond tricks, a spade, a club, and two hearts (ruffing a spade). Making one.
This theme is key to good defense: when you can play trumps and force declarer to play two trumps to your one, it is often worth the tradeoff of a trump trick. Here, continuing trumps was a three trick difference.
The full deal:
| Vul:N-S Dlr: North |
K732 A1082 K K743 |
|
| A1096 K J3 QJ9862 |
J85 QJ93 A9742 A |
|
| Q4 7654 Q10865 105 |
While team Goodman won this battle, it wasn’t enough to overcome excellent play and judgment from Team Vytas which took home the gold. Team Goodman won a well-deserved silver medal.
Lesson points:
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