A nose for tricks

Top players know the percentages but the greats of the game invariably trust their sniffer dog ahead of the bare odds. Take this grand slam from the 2nd European Winter Games in Monaco, starring the legendary Zia Mahmood.

Declarer needed all four diamond tricks (and a spade discard) to make this optimistic grand slam from the round of 16. The odds favour cashing the ace and leading low to the jack. This works on about 37 per cent of all splits, West holding ♦ Q, ♦ Qx, ♦ Qxx, ♦ Qxxx(x) (with no nine) and ♦ 9xxxx. Let’s see what Zia did, and try to work out why he did it.

Zia won West’s singleton jack of hearts opening lead in dummy and promptly cashed two more rounds (no, he didn’t miscount, he wanted to see East-West’s discards). West threw a fairly relaxed spade then a fairly relaxed club, and therein lies the key. A fairly relaxed discard of a suit usually indicates a five-card holding. Zia placed West with five spades and five clubs. That left room for just two diamonds. And if West held two diamonds to East’s four, the best way to play diamonds changes radically. At trick four, declarer called for dummy’s jack of diamonds (key play). East declined to cover, so the jack won. Declarer swiftly led a second diamond to his ten, cashed the ace, crossed to the king of spades, cashed the king of diamonds throwing his losing spade, and tabled his cards. Grand slam made.

Brilliant. And one may think lucky East did not hold ♦ Q97x, for he would cover the jack with that holding, restricting declarer to three diamond tricks. However, Zia would probably have made his slam anyway — can you see how?

After ♦ J, ♦ Q (from ♦ Q97x), A, low, declarer would cash the ten of diamonds, cross to the king, ruff dummy’s fourth diamond and run dummy’s trumps, discarding a spade on the last. On that final trump, West would be squeezed in the black suits, forced to come down to one club to keep three spades. Declarer would still have to guess whether that club was the king but with a sniffer dog like Zia’s, West may as well concede.

Zia won West’s singleton jack of hearts opening lead in dummy and promptly cashed two more rounds (no, he didn’t miscount, he wanted to see East-West’s discards). West threw a fairly relaxed spade then a fairly relaxed club, and therein lies the key. A fairly relaxed discard of a suit usually indicates a five-card holding. Zia placed West with five spades and five clubs. That left room for just two diamonds. And if West held two diamonds to East’s four, the best way to play diamonds changes radically. At trick four, declarer called for dummy’s jack of diamonds (key play). East declined to cover, so the jack won. Declarer swiftly led a second diamond to his ten, cashed the ace, crossed to the king of spades, cashed the king of diamonds throwing his losing spade, and tabled his cards. Grand slam made.