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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

A Time for care….and flair!

When one’s opponents are in an unusual contract, one they should not make, your task as a defender is not to offer them any slim chance of making, if you can. On today’s deal, North-South were obviously too high but nevertheless, it would take care for the defence to beat the over-ambitious game.

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East Deals
None Vul

A K 9 4

7 5

J 10 6 3

6 4 2

Q J 5

Q 10 6 2

7 5 4

A 9 3

 

N

W

 

E

S

   

 

West

North

East

South

you

dummy

   

 

 

Pass

1 ♣

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

1 NT

Pass

3 NT

All pass

 

The 1NT rebid showed 12-14 hcp. You, West, lead Heart-small2 and an examination of dummy shows that North has misbid, perhaps a disadvantage of playing variable no-trump openings. With a maximum 22 hcp between the two hands, it looked like the defence should triumph. Yet, North had chosen a rather good time to misbid, if there ever is such a time!

At trick 1, East played Heart-smallK and South took Heart-smallA. They advanced Spade-small10 from hand which you covered with one of dummy’s honours taking the trick, East following with Spade-small3. Next came Club-small2 from dummy, Club-small5 from East, Club-smallK from South. Over to you. How are you going to defend?

Any idea that 3NT would be easy to defeat would soon vanish. Already, both black suits looked troublesome for the defence and South had only owned up to 7hcp so far. The best defence is a smooth duck of the Club-smallK for these were the four hands:

East Deals
None Vul

A K 9 4

7 5

J 10 6 3

6 4 2

Q J 5

Q 10 6 2

7 5 4

A 9 3

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

8 7 6 3

K 4 3

K Q 9

J 8 5

 

10 2

A J 9 8

A 8 2

K Q 10 7

 

West

North

East

South

you

dummy

   

 

 

Pass

1 ♣

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

1 NT

Pass

3 NT

All pass

 

A smooth duck would see South play a second spade to dummy and seeing as they were rather desperate, insert Spade-small9 and then cash Spade-smallA discarding a diamond. They would then do extremely well to play a second club to Club-small10. They would more likely play East for Club-smallA and insert Club-smallQ thus losing two club tricks. As long as West exits passively with a diamond, the defence will score two clubs, Spade-small8 (a benefit of covering at trick 2), a high diamond and two heart tricks, a very healthy down 2.

It is harder for the defence if West wins Club-smallA though the contract should still be defeated if West is patient. A diamond exit looks moderately passive and forces Diamond-small10 from dummy and Diamond-smallQ from East. If South ducks this, East exits Heart-small4 to West’s Heart-small10 and West must be careful to observe that Heart-small3 is missing. West must exit a second diamond to Diamond-smallJ Diamond-smallK from East. If South wins, they cannot stop the defence taking 2 tricks in each red suit and Club-smallA for one down. It is the same if South wins to cross to dummy and finesse Club-smallJ. Tight but the defence should prevail.

Alas, when in with the Club-smallA at trick 3, West tried to cash heart tricks…but there was only one to cash. This was wrong for any or all of the following reasons:

·       There was no need to panic at trick 4. It was unlikely that a weak no-trump hand could then run off 9 tricks without losing the lead. Cashing the Heart-smallQ was like throwing a coin in the air and hoping it landed on your choice. East had shown no liking for hearts.

·       For those who play Smith Peters (the natural version), East would play a highish spade at trick 2 had they liked hearts (East had followed with Spade-small3)

·       Adding up missing high card points, West knew that East had at least 6 along with the already played Heart-smallK. That assumes South had the maximum 14. They, East, might have more. Although the first few tricks had not gone well for the defence, East was very likely to win the lead fairly soon. West just had to show patience.

Cashing Heart-smallQ was an act of desperation and although South was very close to making 9 tricks on the actual lay-out, there was no need for West to panic.

Their defence required care (a diamond exit at trick 3…even a spade exit would have been fine) while ducking that Club-smallK(smoothly, of course!) would provide the flair. If South had found a way to come to 9 tricks after that smooth duck, then you just had to say “well played”.

Richard Solomon

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