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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

  A Certain Way.

You will probably say there is nothing certain about the problem given to you for today. Even that statement contains too much doubt! While we think we can make 3NT much of the time (slight tinges of optimism now!) with a combined 25 hcp and two flattish hands, the task seems much harder when one hand has 23 and the other just 2 hcps.

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

 

Your partner showed the utmost faith in you by raising with just a couple of jacks! West leads another jack, Heart-smallJ and it is over to you. If you duck the opening lead, a low heart is played with East now playing Heart-smallQ. Make 9 tricks proving that partner's hand was indeed sufficient.

With the club suit looking extremely hard to set up, our best chance must be the spade suit though two tricks in each red suit and four in spades would not be enough. Meanwhile, the opposition are going about their business in the heart suit while extracting even one trick from clubs may be beyond us. In other words, “thank you partner, lovely dummy”! Not a tinge of sarcasm!foot-in-mouth

At one table, South ducked the opening lead and won the heart continuation. They tried to get to dummy with a low diamond with the aim of taking a spade finesse. However, East won their Diamond-smallK and tried a low club with declarer’s guess being very unsuccessful. The carnage was great…four down!

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It seems that perhaps the problems started at trick 1. While it is normal to duck the opening lead with our heart pips, it was significant that the Heart-smallQ had not appeared on the first trick. Hearts might break 4-3 while if you did manage to block the communication in hearts, the thought of a club switch was not very helpful for declarer. All finesses were into the danger hand, the hand with long hearts.

In addition, South never got to take any finesse because there was no entry to dummy in diamonds. At least South could have started with Diamond-smallQ. It may not be ducked. However, South tried to enter dummy with the wrong suit. A low spade after winning the Heart-smallJ would provide a certain entry to dummy to take the diamond finesse and might not subject South to that horrible club guess.

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

 

You really do need East to have one of the missing kings and by leading a small spade, you got a little lucky. West could not duck and neither did you when a second heart was played. Across to dummy with a second spade and the diamond finesse worked not just once but twice! Four spades, three diamonds and two hearts. The opponents could fight over the rest.

Had the spade and diamond kings been in the other hands, you would have been really struggling with the heart blockage (you may as well duck the second round) and a successful club guess being your only chances of getting nine tricks.

Maybe you earnt your luck by crossing to dummy in the suit in which you can certainly take a finesse later in the play as opposed to one which was likely to offer you no chance of one.

Of course, dummy was not just a two count. Spade-smallJ10 and Diamond-small J109 were just golden. Without them, you too could have been counting several undertricks.

In Search of the Queen.

South Deals
None Vul
K 8 7 6
K J 8 3
A J 6
Q 5
   
N
W   E
S
   
 
J 5
9 7
K 10 7 5
A K J 7 4
West North East South
      1 NT
Pass 2  2  Pass
Pass Dbl Pass 3 
Pass 3 NT All pass  

 

After opening your very minor based weak no trump, East overcalls your partner’s Stayman enquiry. You retreat to 3Club-small though partner soon has you in game.

West leads Spade-small4 which goes to East’s Spade-smallQ. Next comes Spade-smallA with West following with Spade-small3 and then Spade-small10 on which you and West each throw a small heart. You win with Spade-smallK and start on the clubs but East has singleton Club-small10 and on the next three rounds throws Diamond-small 2, Diamond-small3 and Heart-smallQ.Their signalling methods? Irrelevant. You and both defenders know West has very little...but how little?

You need 4 diamond tricks. How are you going to get them?

Richard Solomon

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