The Gee Chronicles

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IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead:10

	unknown A K 6 5 2 10 Q 6 A K Q J 6
tgallery Q 10 3 8 6 A 8 5 4 3 10 4 2		groll J 9 4 K J 9 7 5 4 10 9 8 7
	Maestro 8 7 A Q 3 2 K J 9 7 2 5 3

West Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

North 1 1 2 6NT

East Pass Pass Pass Pass

South 1 2 2NT Pass

Today we see Gee at the wheel of an interesting double squeeze. North/South reach a reasonable contract of 6NT after a rather ambitious auction. South’s 2H is either fourth suit forcing or a reverse but seems an overbid in either case.

Gee, declaring 6NT, receives a club lead. At first blush it looks like he needs five tricks in the red suits. Gee leads a low diamond off the board at trick 2, blocking the suit but hoping against hope, I suppose, that East will fly with the ace if he has it. East doesn’t play the A but he does play the 10. Gee covers with the J, which holds. West wins the second diamond, East discarding the H5, and returns a club. A spade would be better, and a heart with the diamonds blocked is interesting, although the hand can still be made (the squeeze still operates because West has only two hearts).

But now the hand is cold. Declarer can run the clubs, cross to the HA, and cash a diamond to come down to this four-card ending:

	A K 6 5 — —
? ? 8 5 —		? ? ? ? — —
	8 Q K 2 —

West can have at most two spades remaining, and if East has the HK the last diamond winner will force him to unguard the spades, giving Gee his 12th trick. So the squeeze always works if the HK is with East, and it also works if the HK is with West either stiff or along with four or more spades.

So Gee runs the winners and makes six, right? Not exactly. He discards the HQ on the last club, keeping his two dead spades. Down 1. Musta misclicked.

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IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 2

	kefeli 8 7 5 A 9 3 2 K 10 A 9 5 4
johnjay A 10 9 4 Q J 4 J 6 5 2 K 7		Maestro Q J 6 K 10 7 A 4 3 Q 10 8 6
	timo K 3 2 8 6 5 Q 9 8 7 J 3 2

West 1 2NT

North Pass Pass

East 1 1NT Pass

South Pass Pass Pass

Continuing our series on dummy play, we find Gee declaring 2NT after a quiet auction, although passing 1NT might be better with West’s grungy 11. Timo, sitting South, opens the spade deuce, as good as anything, which Gee wins in hand with the J. We pause to count tricks. Three or four spades, depending on the location of the K. Two hearts can be established, plus the DA and at least one club. So you might expect the SQ at trick 2 to find out how the spades lie. If it holds, then there’s time to set up two hearts and a club for eight tricks. If not, then you decide which minor suit to play on.

But this is a superficial view. Gee sees more deeply into the hand and plays a low club at the second trick. North wins the A and returns a low heart. An average player might win this in hand and take the spade finesse, but Gee, apparently certain that North holds the SK, wins it on board with the J and leads the S9. Alas, it turns out that South made a sneaky lead from an honor against no trump. Timo wins the K and leads a second round of hearts, ducked to Gee’s 10. Gee now leads to the SA and, neglecting to cash the fourth spade, leads the C7. This line would succeed if North had begun with exactly AJ9 in clubs, but no luck. Timo wins the CJ and Gee loses two more hearts, a diamond and a club at the end for down 2.

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IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: J

	seawind A 8 6 5 6 K 10 8 J 10 9 8 4
Maestro K A Q J 4 7 6 3 Q 7 6 3 2		ahmed1 Q 9 4 2 K 8 5 A Q J 9 2 A
	agamawi J 10 7 3 10 9 7 3 2 5 4 K 5

Today Gee, sitting West, is declaring 3NT after a normal auction and receives the normal lead of the CJ. Let’s do the novice thing and count our tricks. Four hearts, one club, nice looking diamond suit in dummy makes nine unless South has four or more including the K and the 10. Five clubs to the Q in hand, they’re not gonna run clubs out on you. So the novice might play DA and a D honor, which wins between 80 and 90% of the time. The novice might even be right. But Gee is no novice. At trick 2 he leads a low spade off the board! North takes the ace and returns the S8, confirming the old adage, “Both sides lead same suit, one side crazy.” Gee wins the Q, and now the defense has three tricks established and one in. It’s still not too late to make by finessing twice in diamonds, but Gee now cashes four hearts and takes one diamond finesse. It holds, but he’s squandered his entry to repeat the finesse, and the DK fails to drop when he cashes the A. Down one. Some guys just have no luck.