Dubious Logic

At Sevens and Eights

Suit combinations must be one of the game's driest attractions. In 1996 The Dictionary of Suit Combinations by Jean-Marc Roudinesco was published. I confess I've only ever picked it up in a bookshop and, at 476 pages, an undertaking in itself. Containing every combination of interest it makes a severe read – but it is a dictionary after all. A labour of love and years, it arrived just as computer programs got better and were able to tackle the problem. I check plays (as here) using the excellent (and free) SuitPlay, by Dutchman Jeroen Warmerdam.

Dry combinations might be but that doesn't stop them from being infuriating – and making one reach for the dictionary, computer or old-school pencil and paper. Hands which revolve around a single suit are genuinely rare; the real-world is complicated by other chances and restrictions, such as the ability or attraction of getting from hand to hand. This, from the Suffolk teams final, is as close as they get in practice:

West opened a 20-21 two no-trump and was raised without ceremony to six (only a results-merchant would point out that six spades is better). North led the spade nine and the slam almost entirely depends on the club suit. In a pairs game you would like four tricks so finesse and cash the ace, hoping for king-low with North, but with your slam's success paramount, is there a better line?

How about a finesse of the club nine? If South had the ten that would be enough. Set against that, North holding 10xx and South Kxx leads to defeat with clubs 3-3 and that is a big slice of the action. I could see nothing better than finessing the queen – and that won, what next?

I was reluctant to now cash the ace and play another, leading to a quick defeat if North held K10xx, not least because there was an outside chance of the heart queen falling doubleton. So when the club finesse won I returned a low club from dummy to the nine; that forced the king and I had 12 tricks – for no swing. But at the back of my mind I had worried that I'd been here before and, though then I'd looked up the correct approach, I'd forgotten it.

First step was to check the optimum play in clubs with SuitPlay. Best for four tricks is the pairs line (hope for North's king-low) but for three… It is to finesse the queen and, that winning, to run the knave – what?

Initially that looks odd but the idea is to pin South's doubleton ten or eight – and it's safe even if North holds Kx as a lead to the nine is good for a third trick. True, if North has K108x (South xx), a necessary third round is fatal but giving up the heart chance is less painful when the losing case is less likely.

Where had I been before? I tracked back and found this combination from 2012, it was very similar but not quite, the short-side held the eight-spot, not the seven:

Then four tricks were desirable and three essential save miracles. I finessed the knave, losing, but South showed out on the third round (originally Kx) and I had only two winners. Declarer in the other room finessed the eight and when that forced the king she had three. The separate chance (3-3 break) matured and she won a game swing. I thought the initial deep finesse 'lucky' but it is best for four tricks (picking up North's K10x) and only marginally worse for three – she deserved those IMPs.

Having read this far you probably agree with the initial assertion; it is a dry old business. Fortunately you don't have to know every combination – whole-hand considerations usually impinge on the right line anyway – but if you take the trouble to find out, you occasionally find something surprising.

The European Championships in Budapest started on Thursday 16^th June. See Suffolk and EBU websites for links

Published Saturday 18.Jun.2016