Tuesday, February 22, 2005 11:26 PM

Hand Evaluation - Helping Partner

PITBULLS:

The opponents are in a 3NT contract and you have nothing to contribute to the defense. Is this a good time to have a nap and catch up on your needed rest ? Not a chance as partner probably needs your help in some way. The auction goes 2♣-P-2♦-P 2NT-P-3NT-P and partner leads the heart 5 . The board comes down with ♠Jxxx ♥K10x ♦xxx ♣10xx and you have ♠109842 ♥98x ♦J8 ♣xxx . OK start adding the HCP’s and you know partner is going to need your help . Give declarer 22 HCP , you & the dummy total 5 HCP. Partner is behind the big hand with an opening bid of 13 HCP ! Endplays will be the order of the day in these kind of hands.

OK what meager contribution can you make to the defense ? At least you have a Smith echo to tell partner you like his opening lead. The only way you can possibly like his lead is if you have 3 hearts. Declarer played a small heart from the board & won the queen. He cashes the spade Ace so you throw the spade deuce ( reverse Smith echo) saying you liked the heart lead. Spade King follows and partner discards a heart as you play the spade 10 which is a high card showing an original odd number of spades. Partner discards another heart on this spade. He knows you have 3 hearts so hearts are safe discards as declarer can never get to the board. Declarer leads a club toward the 10 and partner started with ♠x ♥AJxxx ♦K10xx ♣AJx and jumps up with jack and plays the heart Ace and exits with a low diamond. I play the jack and declarer wins the queen. Declarer now leads a low club towards the 10. Partner pounces with the Ace and returns a club and declarer is hand locked. He must play diamonds out of his hand with Axx and the defense gets two clubs , two diamonds and the heart Ace. Tough hand !

Sometimes partner does not defend as well as she should. A simple discard of a suit can keep partner on the right path. The opponents got to 6♠ and the board hit with ♠AQxx ♥xxx ♦K109 ♣KJx . You have ♠xxx ♥105 ♦Jxxx ♣xxxx so is it time to leave partner on his own ? You lead a trump , declarer wins it in his hand & plays another spade partner discarding a small heart. Declarer draws the last trump , partner discards another heart. Declarer now plays the club Ace & finesses the jack . Partner wins the club queen , exits a club with declarer discarding a diamond. Declarer now leads a heart, inserts the queen so you give correct count with the 5. Declarer now runs his last two trump . You discard your club on the first trump and partner discards a diamond . Declarer leads his last trump so what do you discard ? Declarer has 5 trump tricks , 2 club tricks , 2 diamond tricks so if he has the AQJ of hearts he has 12 tricks as the heart finesse is on. A little known application of patterns is counting declarers tricks ( 5-3-3-2 ) in this case. Your heart 10 is absolutely useless so discard it as a wakeup call to partner for the heart count for pseudo squeeze prevention. Partner should have the hand counted by now but additional help can not hurt. The formal expression for this play is “baby sitting” partner. You hold onto your heart so dozy partner has a wrong count of the hand , lets a heart go so –980 & –12 IMPS ! Partner’s defense was inexcusable but your “nothing” heart discard could have prevented her from going wrong.