Looking for a career opportunity? Want to hit the big time with little or no effort?
Think PavCo! Our Personnel Division is now hiring eligible job seekers from around the globe. Qualification requires at least a middle school diploma and a residence offshore of the continental United States. Lack of integrity is a plus! We seek the shady set, so naturally we turn to the bridge world, where recent years have exposed enough scoundrels to fill our ranks for a lifetime.
Please do not submit a resume. We wouldn’t believe it anyway, as I’m a Yale graduate (I pick padlocks) with a doctorate from M.I.T. (Master of Internet Tricks) despite never getting beyond middle school. Instead, submit your solution to this puzzle. If you’re shrewd enough, you could land a dream job!*
*My attorneys force me to add a disclaimer: You could also land in prison.But why worry about that? If you’re shrewd enough, you should escape.
Most leads on defense are either high (e.g., top of a sequence) or low (e.g., fourth-best or other carding method), but occasionally it is necessary to lead middle. Typically this occurs after the opening lead, when the holding in dummy dictates the technique.
Consider the defense on this deal:
Declarer wins the Q and routinely attacks spades, low to the jack, king. East returns a heart to the ace; a spade goes to the 10, ace; then West leads a third heart to the king as East pitches a club. Declarer crosses in clubs to cash the Q (pitching a diamond) then finishes clubs ending in hand. Declarer’s last resort is to throw West in with a heart to force a diamond lead.
The J in dummy makes it imperative for West to lead middle. If declarer covers the 10, East’s king forces the ace, then West’s Q-7 is worth two tricks behind the nine; down one. Note that declarer can succeed if West leads either the 7 or the Q (South ducks).
Now it’s your turn to earn a middle school diploma — or flunk out and see if I care!
Construct two suit layouts where West must lead his middle card to produce an extra trick.
Layouts must fit the distributions below. The winner of each trick must lead to the next, and the suit must be led continuously for four tricks. (If a trick winner has no more cards, the lead passes to the left to complete the analysis.) A further goal is for West and East (in that priority) to have the weakest holdings. Challenge yourself, or make your best guesses:
1. Which of these diamond suits (WNES order) is the winner?
2. Which of these club suits (WNES order) is the winner?
Quit
*There was no multiple choice, so solvers had to construct their own holdings.
Congratulations to Duncan Bell, who was only solver to find the perfect solution to both parts. This is Duncan’s second win in a row, as the list of his triumphs keeps growing: The Twelve of Spades, Just Another Zero, High Stakes Rubber, Bridge with the Abbott, Pay No Taxes! and High Cards Amiss.
Ranking is by the lowest West Sum, lowest East Sum, and date-time of entry, in that order of priority.
Dan Gheorghiu found this clever solution, which I believe has the lowest possible rank sum for West and East combined (39):
If West leads the 2, declarer ducks it around to his hand, and the defenders win nothing regardless of East’s play. Only the 7 gives the defense a trick; declarer covers with the eight, but East ducks to lock declarer in dummy — else overtake in hand for the same fate.
Alas, the primary tiebreaker was not for East-West combined but for West to be weakest, and Duncan Bell was the only solver to submit this optimal construction. Call it a switcheroo of the above:
If West leads the 2 or 10, the defenders go trickless with best play, but the 8 saves the day. If declarer covers with dummy’s jack, East ducks; or if declarer plays low, so does East. Either way the defense must score a trick.
Once again, Dan Gheorghiu found the lowest rank sum for West and East combined, albeit not the tiebreaking goal, but interesting nonetheless:
If West leads the J, the play goes low, low, king; then declarer finesses the next round to endplay East, winning three tricks. If West leads the 2, dummy plays low, and East must either waste his nine for the same demise or let the six win.* Only the 7 holds declarer to two tricks, as the play goes eight, nine, king; next comes the 6 covered by the jack, and declarer is without resource.
*If the 6 wins, declarer has no entry to reach the A; but the puzzle conditions state that if a player is out of cards, the lead passes to the left. Effectively, this is like clubs being trump, so if declarer scores the 6, he must win three club tricks.
Surprise, surprise! Duncan Bell found the optimal layout but was not alone, as Ryou Niji also discovered this perfecta:
Only the 6 lead holds declarer to two tricks, as the play goes seven, eight, king. On the 5, West plays the nine, and declarer has no winning option. Any other lead by West costs a trick.
Samuel Pahk: I’m 13 and in middle school, so no diploma yet. Thanks to Olivia Schireson for helping with this.
True no doubt, and Sam even has company:
Henchman 1: I’m 33 and in middle school, so no diploma yet. Thanks to Olivia Newton-John for the sound track.
Henchman 2: I’m 53 and in middle school, so no diploma yet. Thanks to these brass knuckles, I’ll break your ass!
© 2021 PavCo Holdings, LLCservicing millions, one middle finger at a time
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek