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TALES OF AKARANA
AVOIDING FAILURE : Once more to Wednesday night at the Akarana Bridge Club....
When 9 out of 13 Akarana declarers fail in a reasonable and according to Deep Finesse makeable 4
contract, we should have a look and see what went wrong. At the sight of dummy, 4 did not look too hard…but
| Board 9 North Deals E-W Vul |
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| West | North | East | South |
| 1 ♣ | Pass | 1 ♦ | |
| Pass | 1 ♠ | Pass | 3 NT |
| Pass | 4 ♠ | All pass |
The above would be something close to most auctions. Although North’s clubs are pretty raggedy, it does not feel right to pass 3NT but to grind out one’s shape. Who knows…you may even finish up in slam. On this day, partner has a good enough spade fit for you. While 3NT should make, even with a “niceish” diamond break, and an excellent heart honour in the North hand, the communication difficulties mean 3NT is no easy ride.
Mostly, East led a heart against 4 taken by the ace and continued. A couple of clubs can be discarded on the 
10 and 
K without any pain and perhaps a little concerned by East’s high low in hearts and the appearance of the Q, a club ruff might come next. Yet, this seemed to be the critical point. A club to the ace and another club should be ruffed with the 7. Unless the club suit breaks 3-3, your next attempt at ruffing will not be successful as the opponent with a doubleton club is very likely to have a higher trump than dummy.
Ruffing with either dummy’s middle or bottom trump just does not work. West over-ruffs and fires a red card back through declarer and as long as East does not over-ruff declarer’s J or 10, the defence will have two further trump tricks.
The ruff with the 7 does work here as after that successful ruff, North plays a trump to the ace and ruffs another club with 5 (surely that 6 is a true card?). Now, declarer’s last club is discarded on a high red card. East ruffs but there are at most two more tricks for the defence as the contract makes.
However, on the assumption that a maximum two clubs will be ruffed successfully in dummy, North can afford to play a trump to the ace before ruffing any clubs. If the breaks are kinder, this play will not cost and on a day like this one, will certainly gain. The defence will only take their ace and two trumps. If West over-ruffs the first club, declarer may need to guess where the Q is as a defensive cross-ruff could start. Drawing one round of trumps seems to be a lot more satisfactory than getting an embarrassing over-ruff on the first round of clubs.
It kind of feels wrong to take a round of trumps before starting a cross-ruff but sometimes as here, it is the key to success when there are bad breaks.
Richard Solomon
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