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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Good news for the declarers unless you find the right defence.

Spoiling a Dream.

Both pairs could have been defending today’s hand and had the opportunity to defeat the game though in most cases did not. Let’s see how you would go with this one:

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West Deals
N-S Vul

Q 8 6 3

K

A Q 9 7 2

Q 5 2

   

N

W

 

E

S

 

K J

J 8 6 5

K 5 4

K 9 6 3

 

West

North

East

South

 

you

Dummy

 

3 

Pass

4 

All pass

You lead Spade-small3 and, no surprise number 1, in that declarer inserts Spade-smallJ from dummy forcing your partner’s ace. South returns Spade-small4, with declarer following suit with Spade-small7 and Spade-small9. Unless declarer is false-carding, it looks like South has the missing Spade-small2 and thus a 5-card suit.

Trick 3 goes Heart-small5,2, and no surprise number 2, ace felling your king. Next, West produces Diamond-small8. Do you win this trick and if so, with which card do you continue?

On a different day, we might debate whether North should double 3Heart-small for take-out. They have the right-shape to do so and have an opening hand. It appears that since 3 or 4Heart-small was a common contract that most Norths stayed silent, to their cost. On some days, doubling could be a disaster but accepting that this aggressive action could back-fire, it does seem to be the best way of fighting the pre-empt.

As you can see, our North passed and was then faced with a tricky problem when the diamond came. Take the ace…and then? Although it was possible West had Diamond-smallJ8x, I would think that West, with that holding, with 7 hearts, 2 spades and therefore just one club, would play a club towards dummy hoping that you, North, held Club-smallA.

So, if that was not the lay-out, then it must surely be best to win Diamond-smallA and continue with Diamond-smallQ:

West Deals
N-S Vul

Q 8 6 3

K

A Q 9 7 2

Q 5 2

9 7

A Q 10 9 7 4 3

8

J 7 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K J

J 8 6 5

K 5 4

K 9 6 3

 

A 10 5 4 2

2

J 10 6 3

A 10 8

 

West

North

East

South

 

you

Dummy

 

3 

Pass

4 

All pass

Winning and switching to a low club would be fine had South held Club-smallJ as well as the Club-smallA but would have given West a guess they could get right when the Club-smallJ was with West. A successful guess allows 4Heart-small to make. One club disappears on the Diamond-smallK. South could have helped their partner by playing Diamond-smallJ (surely showing Diamond-small10)  under the ace. That makes the diamond continuation even clearer.

West should play Diamond-smallQ just in case West held Diamond-smallJ8. With the diamond continuation, West just has to lose two club tricks to be down 1.

However, the defence was not in good shape when West ducked the Diamond-small8 and the king won. Next came a diamond ruff, a heart to dummy and a second diamond ruff. Now the Club-small4 and it did not matter what North did as if they played low, declarer could insert Club-small9 losing to Club-small10. South could take Club-smallA before conceding..10 tricks. Had North played Club-smallQ, West covers in dummy and still just loses 2 club tricks and a spade.

So, although 4Heart-small can be beaten and although that is also true of 4Spade-small (as South will surely jump to game after the double), -100 would have been a rather good North-South score as compared with many making 10 tricks in hearts even only in part-score. Yet, East had to be alert to defeat 4Spade-small.

Against 4Spade-small by South, West leads Heart-smallA and East is not really sure which minor switch works better for the defence. The defence is unlikely survive a low club switch as with one trick in each of the other suits, they need a club trick as well.

What, though, if West switches to their singleton diamond? Declarer can win to play ace and another spade. East must realise where Club-smallA is (surely with Heart-smallAQ and Club-smallA West would have opened 1Heart-small?) and must therefore find the slightly unusual defence of Diamond-smallK and another diamond to be sure of beating 4Spade-small. South can discard one club but still has a club loser.

So, both West or South could be in ambitious game contracts which in theory should fail. As you can guess, the majority of declarers scored 10 tricks bringing home their contracts with suit lay-outs they could “dream” about, especially when playing 4Heart-small.

Which minor?

     

South Deals
N-S Vul

 

N

W

 

E

S

   
 

K J 8 3 2

7 5 4 3

A Q 8 6

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 ♠

Pass

1 NT

Pass

?

A couple of questions for you here. Firstly, assuming you have the choice of opening this hand 1Spade-small or 2Spade-small, the latter showing spades and a minor less than an opening hand, which would you choose…or would you prefer not to open the hand at all even if 2Spade-small was not an option?

Then, if you open 1Spade-small, the above is the auction you would hear. What would be your second bid? Pairs is the game.

Richard Solomon

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