The Gee Chronicles

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: 6

	dkogut K 8 7 6 3 K 10 6 J 9 9 6 4
Maestro A Q 2 A J 9 5 4 2 K J 10 5		sunday J 5 8 4 2 A K 10 7 3 7 3 2
	leonardo 10 9 4 Q 7 3 Q 8 6 5 A Q 8

Most bridge players are taught early that it is usually more effective to lead toward a tenace than away from one. It takes an expert to understand when to violate this rule.

Today we find Gee, West, playing 2NT after an auction that, for once, is unexceptionable in every way. The 1NT opener is normal, the 2NT invitation is normal, Gee’s refusal is normal…let’s skip ahead to the play, shall we?

North leads S6 and Gee puts up the jack from dummy, which holds. If diamonds break 3-3 there will always be time to set up eight tricks. But if they don’t declarer will need three tricks in clubs, barring a miracle in the majors.

Fortunately the spade lead gives him an extra entry to dummy. Now he can afford to take the club finesse, repeat it if it wins, and test the diamonds. On the actual layout the diamonds don’t break but the clubs sit ideally, and declarer gets home with three clubs, two diamonds, a heart and two spades for an easy eight tricks.

Or so the average player might reason. Not Gee: he crosses up the defense with a low diamond off the board at trick 2! South recovers enough composure to duck, and North wins the DJ and plays back D9, killing dummy’s last entry.

Gee now tests the diamonds, which of course don’t split — North sluffs C6 — and takes a club finesse. It holds, but one finesse is not enough. The hand devolves into what one spec called a series of cascading endplays. The H9 is taken by South’s HQ. Gee ducks the spade return and wins the spade continuation. But now one endplay begets another: Gee leads the CJ, losing to the CQ. A heart is returned through Gee’s AJ, and North wins the HK and cashes his spades. Gee does manage to win his HA at the end for down 2.

Another spec remarked that it was impossible to go down more than 2. This is unfair. There is a double-dummy line for down 3, and two declarers actually found it at the table.

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: K

	pikachu K Q Q J 6 5 3 2 A 9 8 4 2
mgr777 9 8 A K 6 5 K 10 9 8 10 7 6		spikel 10 7 5 3 9 7 4 3 2 7 4 Q J
	Maestro A J 6 4 2 10 8 A Q J K 5 3

West Dbl Dbl Pass

North 1 Pass 3 Pass

East Pass 2 Pass Pass

South 1 3 4

Today our hero, sitting South, winds up in a good spade game after a normal auction. One could argue about West’s first double, which is thin but reasonable with North unlimited at unfavorable vulnerability. His second double is lead-directing in case N/S decide to play notrump.

The play is somewhat more interesting. West begins by cashing two hearts and can beat the contract by playing a third heart. This gives up a ruff-sluff but either promotes a trump trick for his partner or causes declarer to lose control of the hand. At the table it is far from obvious that this is the winning defense, and West can’t be greatly faulted for shifting to a diamond at trick 3.

Gee wins the DJ and proceeds to draw two rounds of trump with the KQ in dummy. He crosses to the CK, East dropping the queen, and plays a third high trump. West shows out, sluffing a heart. At this point the everyday expert might stop to consider the situation. West’s takeout double marks him with the DK. Unless East has all the remaining clubs the hand is now cold. Pull the last trump, sluffing the worthless diamonds from dummy, and duck a club. If West has four clubs, which is unlikely on the bidding but barely possible, he will be forced to insert an honor and be endplayed. Otherwise there are ten tricks.

Gee has something else in mind. He discards a club on the third round of trump, and another club on the fourth round. West errs by discarding his last heart, his only exit card, leaving this position.

	pikachu — — 6 5 3 A 9
mgr777 — — K 9 8 10 7		spikel — 9 7 2 7 Q
	Maestro 6 — A J 5 3

Even if West had correctly discarded a diamond on the fourth round of trump, a fifth round would strip-squeeze him. He’d be forced to part with his last heart or unguard one of the minors. But in the actual play West is already out of exit cards, and two rounds of clubs will force him to lead into Gee’s diamond tenace.

And in the actual play Gee, I report with some regret, does not play his last trump. He doesn’t play two rounds of clubs either. He plays the DA and another diamond, and West winds up with the setting trick in clubs at the end.

“Close,” Gee says ruefully to his partner after the hand, “but no cigar.”

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: A

	taryk — K 6 2 K 10 8 3 A K J 9 8 4
kalligr A 9 8 7 5 Q 10 5 4 7 4 6 3		bania J 10 6 4 3 A Q J 9 5 Q 5 2
	Maestro K Q 2 J 9 8 7 3 A 6 2 10 7

West 2 Dbl

North 1 4 Pass

East 1 Pass Pass

South 2 Pass Pass

Today’s auction contains some controversial bids, which is usual, but none by Gee, which is not. North’s 1C opener is unexceptionable, nor do I find anything to quarrel with in East’s spade overcall. Gee, sitting South, makes a fine 2H call with a hand a little too good for 1NT. If we assume that E/W are playing preemptive raises in competition and that West can show a limit raise by cuebidding hearts, then 3S might be better than 2. It turns out to be irrelevant, as North raises to game on good support and a void in the opponents’ suit. This is passed to West, who, holding two defensive tricks, makes a rather frisky double, following it with the worst possible lead for the defense, the SA.

Gee ruffs in dummy and surveys the hand. West obviously has a trump holding; the double can’t be based on anything else. If there are only two trump losers the hand always makes. But if there are three then declarer needs to set up a third club trick for a diamond sluff.

Gee crosses to hand with the DA and runs the HJ, hoping West began with AQxx — not too likely, since this would give East something like J10xxxx 10 QJxx Qx for his overcall. In any case, bad news: East wins the HA, which means there are three likely trump losers, and returns a spade.

At this point it is clear that hearts are 4-1 unless West has gone mad. Everything hinges on clubs. With two outside entries to dummy, playing the two top clubs and ruffing the third high in hand will succeed when they break 3-2, and when West has four, and when West has the stiff Q. Altogether that’s almost 85%. Taking the club finesse will succeed when West holds the CQ. Looks like 50%; maybe less, since East was the overcaller.

Now if you regard this preamble as a suggestion that an expert like Gee play the top clubs, then you have been missing the point of these chronicles. Gee finessed the club. Of course he understood that the percentages were against him. But “against all odds, [he] had the sense that it would make.” If you have ever wondered, watching an expert table, what distinguishes their play from yours, it’s that experts are visionaries. I cannot stress this point enough.