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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

One Deal:  Two Clever Plays.

Let’s start off today where we left off yesterday. We were talking about the problems of under-leading aces, even if in yesterday’s hand, success only came if you did so! (We will wait for you while you check back on that article….smile). Today’s problem was on the same theme with maybe a different outcome:

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South Deals
E-W Vul
J 10
A 10 9 2
K Q 4
Q 9 5 3
   
N
W   E
S
 
7 6 4 3
K
9 7 5
A K J 7 2
West North East South
  Dummy You  
      1 
Pass 4  All pass  

 

Partner leads Club-small8 to your Jack and declarer’s 10. You expose one little false card by playing Club-smallK next with declarer following with Club-small6 and partner Club-small4. Where to from here for a successful defence?

That was quite a strong game raise in dummy for what is often a distributional pre-emptive action. It meant your partner was not going to be blessed with much high card strength.

The standard play to make at this point is to underlead your Club-smallA and try to give your partner a ruff…and then hopefully score your own Heart-smallK for the setting trick. That would be fine…but what if declarer had, as they were favourite to have, Heart-smallQJ and your partner could not over-ruff? What would the declarer think? It would be logical to place the Heart-smallK in the East hand unless West had deep masochistic tendencies or a desire to execute a Grosvenor Gambit “par excellence” (make such a ridiculous play that no declarer could pick the true situation.)!

Thus, rather than taking the normal trump finesse, declarer would lead a heart to their Heart-smallA to drop your king….unpleasant!

So, East decided to take a different route to success…look for either the Spade-smallA or Spade-smallK in their partner’s hand. After all, on some days, declarer could discard spade losers on say a third round of diamonds and the established 5th club. So, there was no club underlead but a spade switch…which went to West’s ace and a spade was returned.


“Operation successful” thought East as they sat back with a glow of some satisfaction and waited for the trump finesse…but it did not come!

disappointment 2.jpg

 

South Deals
E-W Vul
J 10
A 10 9 2
K Q 4
Q 9 5 3
A 9 8 2
7 6 4
J 8 6 2
8 4
 
N
W   E
S
 
7 6 4 3
K
9 7 5
A K J 7 2
 
K Q 5
Q J 8 5 3
A 10 3
10 6
West North East South
      1 
Pass 4  All pass  

 Smart Play- Smart Counter-play

It has got something to do with “smelling a rat”. Although South could not be sure, the club play suggested strongly that West had led a doubleton. If that were indeed true, then why did East not try to give their partner a ruff? A “senior moment” perhaps…or did they know something?

It is like when one defender does not lead partner’s suit when it is obvious to do so. You “smell” a void. Here, South guessed that East knew where the Heart-smallK was and did not want to “give the game away”. So, backing their judgement, the declarer made the very unusual trump play of a heart to the ace…and was duly rewarded!

That was rather a cruel blow for East whose third round of clubs would certainly have produced that very ending. Maybe, East should have switched at trick two, hardly a brilliant play, though, when that Club-small8 was a singleton.

What if West had held one of the missing two heart honours? From declarer’s point of view, the double finesse is statistically correct, only losing out when East holds Heart-small KQ or KJ doubleton as applicable. So, there was a reasonable chance that East would score their trump on the first round….and now play the low club. Would South be able to work out that particular situation?

It is a bit like two players psyching on the same deal. It should not happen: two fine plays on the same deal. There could, though, only be one winner!

and to tomorrow

 
A Q 9 7 6
9 7 6
A K Q
A K
West North East South
  1  2  3 
Pass ?    

 

If you do not yet play Precision, we are going to give you a quick one hand lesson. You, North, open 1Club-small, 16+ high card points, any shape. OK so far? East makes the almost compulsory not vulnerable action over it, this time a jump to 2Heart-small, weak, very weak or totally pusillanimous!

Your partner now bids 3Spade-small , big call, certainly 8+ hcp and plenty of spades.

Now you are versed in Precision, what bid do you make?

Actually, pretend the auction has gone:

West              North                                East                South

                      2Club-small  (game force) 1         2Heart-small                   2Spade-small

Pass             ?

1 come on.it's pretty close to a 2Club-small opener

and you have pretty much the same auction:

and your bid is? 

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maybe an Easter Egg if you get it right?   

Richard Solomon

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