Prof_IMP#13

presents Professor IMP's Weekly Master Class #13 To Prof. IMP Index

-	'Seducing Partner'

Professor IMP was kibitzing this year's ArboNed Team Cup, the official knock-out teams championship of The Netherlands. In the round of 32, the Professor noticed a rather careless defence by one of his students. The opponents had reached 3NT after LHO had opened with a weak No Trump. North led the

9 and this is what the student saw:
-

W/none	dummy
		A Q K 9 3 2 J 8 2 J 7 5 4
e	J 10 9 6 A Q 8 7 Q 7 4 Q 8

LHO	RHO
1NT(12-14)	2
2	2NT
3NT	Pass

-
North-South were playing so-called odd leads (3rd and 5th-best), so the

9 was likely to be from

K109x(x) or from

A109x(x). Dummy played low and the student followed with the eight-spot. Declarer won with the King and cashed the

A, felling North's King. On the next diamond lead, North pitched a club and the Jack was played from dummy. South held up his Queen to cut communication. On the third round of diamonds, South was obliged to win the Queen and this time North discarded a spade, showing his count in the suit: four cards.

The student tried to imagine declarer's hand. Apparently, he had six diamonds and apart from the K, declarer was bound to have the K and the J, otherwise he would not have enough points, even for a weak No Trump. Declarer's distribution was almost certainly 3-2-6-2. It looked like declarer had nine tricks: five diamonds, a club and three spades. To cash the diamonds, however, declarer would have to overtake dummy's Q with the King, which obviously would cost a trick.

In view of this, the student drew the conclusion that the defence had an easy time. Just cash the Q and then shift to a spade. Of course, declarer could play the A and the Q, followed by a low heart, but in that case South would counter by winning the Q, cashing the A, and putting dummy on lead by playing another heart. Partner would make the last two tricks with his clubs.

Consequently, the student laid down the Q. As expected declarer played low, and North? He went into the tank. It took a couple of minutes but finally North overtook with the A and switched to the the 10. Suddenly the contract was made:
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W/none	7 4 3 2 10 6 4 K A 10 9 6 2
K 8 5 J 5 A 10 9 6 5 3 K 3		A Q K 9 3 2 J 8 2 J 7 5 4
e	J 10 9 6 A Q 8 7 Q 7 4 Q 8

-
The student was left in shock. How could this happen to him? How for heaven's sake could North even think of overtaking the

'It's entirely your own fault, young man', Professor IMP explained. 'You just successfully succeeded in seducing your partner into executing a correct, but losing defence. Correct from his point of view, anyway. He thought that when you played the Q at the earliest possible moment, the only chance to beat the contract was that you possessed the AQJx and that declarer had the J. Very reasonable of him to think so. If you would have timed your defence differently, by switching to the J first, he would not have been seduced at all.'

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