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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

A Big S(win)g in Rotorua.

The team of Liz and Blair Fisher, Alan Grant and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin scored an emphatic win in the Kelly Peirse Memorial Teams at Rotorua on Saturday, winning all 6 of their matches and being 14.75 vps clear at the end. Today’s board produced the biggest swing of the day. We will give you two problems today which you should look at independently:

Bridge in NZ.png nz map.jpg  

South Deals
E-W Vul

8 4 3

A 3

9 6 4

A K Q 8 2

   

N

W

 

E

S

 

A K J 5

10 7 5 2

Q 10 8 5 2

 

West

North

East

South

 

you

dummy

 

 

 

 

1 

Pass

2 ♣

Dbl

3 ♣

3 

Pass

Pass

4 ♣

Pass

Pass

4 

Pass

5 

Dbl

All pass

 

A slow auction which might have petered out in 3Diamond-small ended two levels higher! 1Heart-small was Precision style 9-14 hcp. Fearing that an opening club lead may get ruffed (an accurate presumption), you lead Heart-smallA, receive an encouraging signal from partner and continue a second heart to their Heart-smallJ, West following low. On the third round of hearts, your partner plays Heart-smallK and declarer Diamond-smallJ. What do you discard? Seeing as you doubled the final contract, it is extra important you discard well.

Meanwhile, we have an opening lead problem for you. You hold:

South Deals
E-W Vul

   

7 2

9 4

A K J 7 3

10 9 5 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

   

South opens 1Heart-small, Precision style, and with no interference, North relays and sets the final contract as 6Club-small, with South the declarer. South’s shape is known to be  4504 and South has 0-3 controls (Ace=2 King=1) and has at least one honour (ace, king or queen) in spades and hearts. What then would you lead?

The board provided a huge 17 imp swing for the winners when both the doubled game and the small slam made….and both could have been defeated!

South Deals
E-W Vul

8 4 3

A 3

9 6 4

A K Q 8 2

7 2

9 4

A K J 7 3

10 9 5 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

A K J 5

10 7 5 2

Q 10 8 5 2

 

Q 10 9 6

K Q J 8 6

J 7 6 3

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 

Pass

2 ♣

Dbl

3 ♣

3 

Pass

Pass

4 ♣

Pass

Pass

4 

Pass

5 

Dbl

All pass

 

At our first table, we had the very competitive auction to 5Diamond-smallx. North did well to lead hearts, with the club void appearing in dummy. However, on the third round of hearts, North discarded a club. Now, West could play their top two spades and ruff a spade with Diamond-small7. After that, it was simply a case of ruffing dummy’s remaining spade and heart with  Diamond-smallAK and ruffing clubs in the West hand, with North under-ruffing….contract made.

Had North discarded a spade, the Diamond-small9 in the North hand would have meant that only 2 out of 3 small major cards could be ruffed successfully and the contract would have to fail.

Jeremy 23.jpg    Alan Grant 1.jpg   
Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin                Alan Grant 
the relieved declarer in 5Diamond-smallx

Meanwhile, 6Club-small by South was a somewhat ambitious contract. Liz and Blair Fisher did well to make South declarer. West opted for safety and led Diamond-smallA but declarer could ruff two diamonds in the South hand and, after drawing trumps, discard three spades (or two spades and a diamond) on South’s hearts to lose just one trick at the end.

While a spade would obviously be a very successful lead for the defence, a heart, too, combined with the 4-0 trump break, makes 6Club-small too hard to make. South would like to use Heart-smallA as a second entry to dummy to ruff diamonds in their hand but preserving that blocks the heart suit. All would be well for South had there been a better club break but the 4-0 break makes it too tough to score 12 tricks.

Even a trump lead may not beat the slam. On a low trump lead, South would be well advised to insert Club-small8 or else they will be stuck in their hand after the second diamond ruff. If West leads a high club, declarer can ruff the second diamond with Club-smallJ and take a marked trump finesse back to hand. This shows the value of leading a low trump, which may indeed beat the contract.

Most tables either played this board in part-score or in 5Club-small by North, failing through a spade ruff. That was far from the case in the match featuring the Fisher team. 17 very useful imps on their way to an emphatic victory.

Richard Solomon

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