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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Worth the risk?

Today’s deal comes from one of the tournaments held last weekend. Let’s see the defensive problem, then salute the winners of the various events and return to the problem at the end.

Bridge in NZ.pngnz map.jpg

South Deals
E-W Vul

10 9 8 3

A Q 9 8 6

8

K Q 8

   

N

W

 

E

S

 

Q 2

K 10 3

A 6 5

A J 7 6 2

 

West

North

East

South

 

Dummy

You

 

 

 

 

1 NT

Pass

2 ♣

Dbl

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

 

You are East and after South opened a weak 1NT (11-14), and your double of Stayman, your partner leads Club-small9 to the final contract of 4Spade-small. Declarer plays Club-smallK from dummy at trick 1. Plan the defence.

 Let's salute the weekend winners:

Hawke's Bay Congress (Hastings)

             

Open Match-Point Swiss Pairs

             

Ray

Gruschow

Graeme

Norman

         
                     

Intermediate Pairs

                 

Malcolm

Kirkby

 

Joy

Williams

         
                     

Junior Pairs

                   

Megan

Dravitzki

Alice

Dravitzki

         
                     

Intermediate Teams

               

Graham

Potter

 

Rob

Armstrong

Trish

Murphy

Jillian

Ramsey

                     

Swiss Pairs

                   

Ken

Yule

 

Alister

Stuck

           
                     

Open Teams

                 

Colin

Carryer

 

Sandra

Calvert

 

Jenna 

Gibbons

Christine

Gibbons
                     

Otago Southland Congress

(Dunedin)

           

Otago- Southland Provincial Pairs

             

Sam

Coutts

 

Brad

Johnston

         
                     

Otago- Southland Provincial Teams

             

Graeme

Stout

 

Jeff

Thompson

Peter

McCaskill

Peter

Hall

                     

Auckland Congress

               

Queen’s Birthday 15A Pairs

               

Grant

Jarvis

 

Michael

Ware

           
                     

Queen’s Birthday 5A Restricted Pairs

             

Mereana

Cullen

 

Kevin

Birch

           
                     

Queen’s Birthday 15A Teams

               

Matt

Brown

 

Mike

Doecke

 

Michael

Ware

 

Malcolm

Mayer

                     

West End Walk-In Pairs

               

George

Sun

 

Alice

Young

           

 

  Otago Southland Congress Pairs and Teams Winners

Brad Johnston and Sam Coutts  22.jpg  Otago teams winners 22.jpg  
Brad Johnston and Sam Coutts                   Peter McCaskill, Jeff Thompson, Graeme Stout and Peter Hall

Match-Point Pairs winners at Hastings

Graeme Norman and Ray Gruschow 22.jpg  

Graeme Norman and Ray Gruschow

Today's deal came from the Hawke’s Bay Congress held in Hastings. 

 Did you duck the Club-smallK at trick 1? That certainly seems one and was the successful approach. Of course, had declarer held four clubs, meaning the lead was a singleton, you could have taken a quick four tricks, Club-smallA, Diamond-smallA and two club ruffs. There was still a way to beat the contract if Club-small9 was top of a doubleton:

South Deals
E-W Vul

10 9 8 3

A Q 9 8 6

8

K Q 8

7 5

J 7 2

K 10 9 7 4 2

9 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

Q 2

K 10 3

A 6 5

A J 7 6 2

 

A K J 6 4

5 4

Q J 3

10 5 3

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 NT

Pass

2 ♣

Dbl

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

 

The fact that the declarer was likely to lose a trick to your Heart-smallK meant that the defence could still prevail as long as West could gain the lead either in trumps or possibly in diamonds.

After the Club-smallK wins the first trick, South has no bother in drawing trumps. Then, they would take that heart finesse and you must under-lead your Diamond-smallA and hope. If instead at trick 2, declarer plays a diamond from dummy planning on your taking the Diamond-smallA, you must be brave and duck….either way, there will be four tricks for the defence, two clubs, Heart-smallK and Diamond-smallK.

It is hard to tell when you request partner to lead a suit as to how short they are in that suit. An immediate club return at trick 2 would not have worked on this occasion. However, you should now be glad you doubled 2Club-small for the lead as no other lead threatened the contract. 

Richard Solomon

 

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