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Thoth – The Seven of Spades

The ancient Egyptians believed the god Thoth simply thought himself into existence. His persona is credited as being the inventor of the hieroglyphs. He is also known as the god of writing, mathematics, geometry and drawing, and also of wisdom, medicine, music, astronomy, time, astrology, the moon and magic.

It was said that Thoth wrote books in which was set forth fabulous knowledge of magic and incantation. He served as the vizier of Osiris and presided over the judgement of the dead by weighing their hearts against a feather.

And, of course, in his spare time… he played bridge^*. Indeed, one of his names in Egyptian mythology is "He who balances", which many believe is an early reference to his preference for bidding rather than making the final pass in an auction.

NS Game, Dealer East.		Sophie
		♠ AK7
		♥ 106
		♦ A876
		♣ A954
	Genghis		Maggie
		Thoth
		♠ 53
		♥ A742
		♦ KQ543
		♣ 63

	West	North	East	South
	Genghis	Sophie	Maggie	Thoth
			2♥1	Pass
	Pass	Dbl	Pass	3♦
	Pass	4♦	Pass	5♦
	End

1. Enigma Two Heart bid, showing five hearts and a five card minor with 6 to 10 points.

Genghis opened with the jack of diamonds and Thoth began his search for the wisdom to bring the contract home.

We've missed our best spot of three no-trumps but now's not the time to dwell on that. I think five diamonds is unmakeable if trumps break 4-0 so I won't dwell on that either.

I have no losing spades, three losing hearts, no trump losers, given a 3-1 or 2-2 break, and one club loser - four losers. If trumps are 2-2 I can ruff two heart losers in dummy. So I have to direct my analysis towards a 3-1 trump break.

If trumps are 3-1, the most likely distribution for East is two spades and 5-5 in hearts and clubs, while West will hold six spades, three diamonds and 2-2 in the others suits.

One line that suggests itself is to try to ruff the two losing hearts in dummy before drawing trumps. If I win this trick with the ace of diamonds, West will be able to ruff the third round of hearts with the nine or ten and I'll still have a club trick to lose for one down. So I must win the first trick in hand.

Following this sequence through. I win the first trick and duck a heart, if I assume that Maggie wins and returns a heart. I can ruff a heart in dummy, play ace and king of spades and ruff the last spade, ruff the last heart, then cash the diamond ace. Ah, I can see a problem with this line, the only way back to my hand to draw West's last trump is to ruff the third round of clubs, but as West also started with two clubs he'll over-ruff if I ruff low, and if I ruff high his ten will be promoted to a winner.

Since I can't make the contract by ruffing hearts, I need an alternative solution. And as Maggie controls both hearts and clubs there might be a path to success. For instance, if I can direct the play towards the following position;

		Sophie
		♠ 7
		♥ 10
		♦ 8
		♣ A95
	Genghis		Maggie
	♠ Qxxx		♠ ---
	♥ x		♥ KQJ
	♦ ---		♦ ---
	♣ x		♣ KQx
		Thoth
		♠ ---
		♥ A74
		♦ 54
		♣ 6

North leads the spade for me to ruff, East cannot afford to discard a heart as that will permit me to establish the seven by playing the ace of hearts and ruffing a heart, nor can she discard a club, since in that case I play a club to the ace and ruff a club establishing the nine.

The problem is that I need to duck a heart and a club to reach this ending, and doubtless Maggie will return a heart to remove my ace when I duck a heart and when I duck a club she'll return that suit. With the entries removed the squeeze will never work.

Would it work if I force Maggie to discard before giving her a trick? Lets see, after three rounds of trumps everyone will hold ten cards, two rounds of spades will leave eight, at which point Maggie is likely to have four cards in clubs and hearts. So when I call for my name card, the seven of spades, to ruff in hand, she'll have to unguard either hearts or clubs. The layout should be like this as the last spade is played.

		Sophie
		♠ 7
		♥ 106
		♦ 8
		♣ A954
	Genghis		Maggie
	♠ Qxxx		♠ ---
	♥ xx		♥ KQxx
	♦ ---		♦ ---
	♣ xx		♣ KQxx
		Thoth
		♠ ---
		♥ A742
		♦ 54
		♣ 63

Say Maggie discards a heart on the seven of spades, I can duck a heart. Then;

• If the defence return a heart I can win and ruff a heart in dummy to establish the seven.
• If they return a club I can play a heart to the ace and ruff a heart. In both cases I can reach my hand by ruffing the third round of clubs.
• Finally, if Genghis is able to win the heart and return a spade, I can ruff in dummy, discarding a club from hand, to reach this situation with dummy on lead.

		Sophie
		♠ ---
		♥ 10
		♦ ---
		♣ A954
	Genghis		Maggie
	♠ Qx		♠ ---
	♥ x		♥ KQ
	♦ ---		♦ ---
	♣ xx		♣ KQx
		Thoth
		♠ ---
		♥ A74
		♦ 5
		♣ 6

Now it's a simple matter to concede a second heart trick and claim the contract.

If Maggie elects to throw a club instead of a heart on the third round of spades, the position is a mirror image with clubs and hearts reversed. This time I'll establish the nine of clubs as the eleventh trick.

So the plan is; if trumps break 2-2 simply ruff the two losing hearts in dummy, if they are 3-1, I'll draw trumps, cash the ace and king of spades, then play myself, the seven of spades to squeeze Maggie out of a club or heart. Then I'll cede a trick in whichever suit Maggie unguards and, if everything goes according to plan, establish the winner I need to make the contract.

It is a curious hand and one worth remembering. The squeeze works with three losers, but if I try to rectify the count by losing a trick or two, it fails. In future I must remember, "An opponent may be forced to surrender a trick at any point in a hand where he needs to keep more cards than there are tricks left".

The full deal;

		Sophie
		♠ AK7
		♥ 106
		♦ A876
		♣ A954
	Genghis		Maggie
	♠ Q108642		♠ J9
	♥ J8		♥ KQ953
	♦ J109		♦ 2
	♣ Q10		♣ KJ872
		Thoth
		♠ 53
		♥ A742
		♦ KQ543
		♣ 63

At one table where North played in 3NT he, (or was it a she?), ducked the opening heart lead and took the second round. Only after they'd cashed three rounds of diamonds did they notice the suit was blocked and there was no entry to dummy to make the fifth diamond trick.

Two declarers, facing the same problem, simply ducked a second round of hearts and discarded the blocking diamond on the ace of hearts.

* Some academics dispute this assertion, but others argue that a god who can create himself simply by thinking, "I think therefore I might as well exist," would have no trouble playing a game before it was invented.