Finding Jack

By: Larry Cohen

Finding Jack

This deal was played in "the local duplicate" in Boca Raton earlier this year. I have many teaching deals in my arsenals designed to locate a queen. Finding a jack is a much more difficult topic, so I was delighted when David Berkowitz called to tell me about this deal he played at the club. He held:
K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2

After three passes, nobody vulnerable, he opened 2. In 4th seat the range for a "weak" two bid is about 9/10 to 13/14 HCP (with a really weak hand, you'd pass the deal out). His 2 bought the contract and the 10 was led:

Q2
♥ Q954
♦ J72
♣ KQ109
K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2

East cashed two high diamonds and played a third round, all following. How will you play the trump suit? That is sort of a trick question. The normal play in spades is low to the queen and later to finesse the 10. However, David did some exploratory preparation.

He led a club to trick 4. LHO won the ace and cashed the A and played another heart to declarer's king. Any new ideas about the spade suit?

Remarkably, you can place both the ace and the jack! West won't have the A. Why not? He already has the A and A. Do you know any player this century who would pass with 3 aces? Not me. So, East has the A. He also had the AK. Personally, I'd open with AK-A, especially in 3rd seat. This East player was conservative, yes, but if you add in the J, I'll bet anyone would have opened. That was David's conclusion. East had to have the A (West couldn't have 3 aces) and West had to have the J (East would have opened in 3rd seat with 12 HCP including AK-A).

Backing his convictions, he led the 10. If West had J9x, nothing could be done. If West had J9 doubleton, David would likely misguess the suit (10-jack-queen-ace and later a finesse against the 9, better odds than J9 doubleton). However, this was the real deal:

Vul:East-West
Dlr: West
Q2
♥ Q954
♦ J72
♣ KQ109
J65
♥ AJ7
♦ 10983
♣ A54
A9
♥ 10863
♦ AK4
♣ 8763
K108743
♥ K2
♦ Q65
♣ J2

West actually didn't cover the 10 (would you?) for fear declarer had K109 and was trying to get a cover. Anyway, David backed his card-reading and let the 10 run. Making 2!

This is the kind of deal where "normal" players would lose 2 spade tricks by the very normal play of a spade to the queen and ace and then an odds-on losing finesse. They would later see the double-dummy indication that it makes--and realize that running the 10 was the winning play. "Not findable," they'd ruminate. Unless you are a hall-of-famer.