Knavery by Foxymoron

    

The Knave of Hearts. Illustration by W.W. Denslow.

The Knave of Hearts

 He stole those tarts,

And took them clean away

This extract of a rhyme by an anonymous author first appeared in the European Magazine in April 1782. There are more verses than are normally published, but I guess what the King of Spades did with the maids has been deemed unsuitable for the target audience. Ryan Stephenson used the jack of hearts well on this hand:

West opened a multi and Ryan made a practical bid of 2NT on the South hand. Many play here that double is either hearts or not hearts, which is a bit Humpty Dumpty I know (wrong nursery rhyme - Ed.). Andy Clery had an easy raise to game as, even opposite South's maximum, slam is unlikely. West led the king of hearts, but Ryan ducked in both hands. West could do no more than play a second heart, but Ryan ran his eight minor suit winners and West was strip-squeezed down to the queen of hearts and Kx of spades. Ryan exited with the knave of hearts in the ending and completed a well-earned +660.

The knave of hearts was key to the following hand as well, and Ryan tested declarer's technique with the best defence:

The above auction was fairly common last night, although some Souths passed (only six of them, partner). North avoided the king of hearts lead, which would have led to the contract making immediately as the dreaded jack of hearts pops up in dummy. Andy Clery dutifully led his partner's suit and Ryan won and switched to the ten of hearts. It looks normal to duck that now, but Frances Loughridge, perhaps fearing a singleton heart with South, won with the ace and should now ruff a club, draw a round of trumps, ruff the last club and draw the final round of trumps. Now she can lead towards the jack of hearts. North can take his two heart winners but is then endplayed. If South does have a high heart, nothing is lost as there is still the diamond finesse. Instead she took the diamond finesse and North cashed out for one off. These two hands helped Ryan and Andy to a narrow first place less than 1% clear of the field.

There were quite a few points of interest on this hand. Gerry Weston, North, led a passive trump as his partner, Paul Thornton, had "meekly" passed as South. Now declarer drew trumps and played ace and another diamond. North needed to duck this, but when he won that was 11 tricks and a near bottom;  this misdefence was also found by Kevin Robins in the North seat. It was even tougher for Nigel Stuttard, North, when East opened a Lucas Two Spades and was raised to game. South led a diamond and now. when declarer played low from dummy, he needed to put in the ten to hold declarer to ten tricks.

On a heart lead by South, declarer has to duck  and if North returns a club followed by another heart by South, declarer needs to rise. Then he ruffs a club, crosses with a trump, ruffs another club and exits with the jack of hearts, making in much the same way as Frances could have done.

The careless declarer was Mike Eden who had a club lead and a heart switch, which he ducked. North persisted with a second club, ruffed in dummy. Now declarer drew two rounds of trumps ending in dummy before taking the diamond finesse, and then he claimed. But he had not preserved the eight of spades to get to dummy. His claim was accepted by NS  but then disputed. The TD correctly ruled one down, as it was likely that the defence would now win a trick as all they have to do is force dummy while the diamonds are blocked. "Likely" in this claim law is interpreted as a not insignificant chance. Edgar Kaplan used to think it was about a one in six chance.