The Gee Chronicles

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: K

	kellyp J 10 3 2 K 7 K 10 3 K Q J 8
Maestro A K 8 6 5 4 10 9 5 A 9 7 6		cyl 7 A Q 6 A Q J 8 7 2 10 5 3
	peterkwp Q 9 J 9 8 5 4 3 2 6 4 4 2

West 1 4

North Pass Pass

East 1 2 Pass

South Pass Pass Pass

Each declarer play is like a battle. Prepare for battle. Count your winning tricks, your loosing [sic] tricks. Make a plan of attack to better your chances of winning the remaining ones.
–G. Cohen, Bridge Is A Conversation

Sticks and Wheels, for now, is at an end. Today we have a sort of intermezzo while I contemplate our next theme.

Some Wests might trouble to show the clubs on the second round to reach an excellent 3NT by East, but Gee, shrewdly aware of how much better off the partnership will be if he plays the hand, leaps to 4S instead.

North leads the CK, best for the defense, and Gee wins the first round. To the unpracticed eye this may look like a zero percentage play, but it wins if clubs are 5-1 and South has the short trump, which happens at least once for every five or six times this play loses.

Declarer is due to lose at least one trump, probably two, and this leaves the question of what to do with the club losers. Diamonds come to mind, and Gee promptly finesses the DJ, which holds, improving declarer’s prospects considerably. He now plays off his two top trumps, both defenders following. So far so good: as long as one defender can’t ruff in before the fourth round of diamonds declarer has time to discard two clubs and make, conceding two trump tricks and a club. Sure enough, that’s the layout. (If trump were 3-3, of course, then a first round club duck might have come in handy.)

So Gee repeats the diamond finesse and makes, right? Um, actually, Gee leads a heart and finesses the queen! It holds, and he can still survive by returning to his hand with a heart ruff and repeating the diamond finesse. Instead he cashes the HA, discarding a club, and cashes the DA. Unlucky again; the DK doesn’t drop. When he leads the DJ and South discards a small heart, he still has at least a theoretical chance if he ruffs in hand and plays a trump: South may have erred by not ruffing and trump may be 3-3. But real experts hate to take advantage of defensive errors and Gee instead elegantly discards the C7, guaranteeing defeat.

None Vul
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.

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: K

	nikkos J 10 8 7 6 J 9 5 10 9 8 4 3
brando Q 9 2 Q 4 4 3 2 A K Q 7 6		Maestro A 5 4 3 10 7 A Q J 8 6 J 5
	lubac K A K 8 6 3 2 K 7 5 10 9 2

West Rdbl 3 3 Pass

North Pass Pass Pass Pass

East 1NT 2 3 4

South Dbl Pass Pass Pass

1NT was weak, lubac’s double was DONT, showing a one-suited hand, and two spades was…well, never mind what two spades was. Four diamonds, however, is unbeatable on the layout, presuming the planets are in normal alignment. South leads out two top hearts and, stuck with the stiff spade K, switches to clubs, as good as anything. Gee wins the club in hand, plays the trump A, and plays a small trump! This wins whenever the K is doubleton. Unfortunately, the diamond Q or J also wins whenever the K is doubleton, plus all those other layouts when the K is third. “Darn,” said Gerard when the diamond 10 held the trick, “but with only one entry it was the only logical play I think.” “Was that a misclick?” his partner asked. “A misclick is one thing but intentionally is…” He decided not to finish the sentence.

Moral: The whole is greater than the part.