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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

or is it?

Not Quite So Simple.

When your contract seems very straightforward, you should take extra-special care. Maybe it is not as simple as it seems.

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West Deals
Both Vul

J 8 2

6 5

Q 10 9 3

A K Q J

   

N

W

 

E

S

   
 

K Q 9 7 6 5

A K Q 2

K 2

5

 

West

North

East

South

Pass

1 

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

1 NT

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 NT

Pass

5 ♣

Pass

5 ♠

All pass

 

 

 

Your partner shows you a 12-14 no trump hand. 2Club-small is check-back for majors and North shows 3 spades and less than 4 hearts with 2Spade-small. Key Card ask brings disappointing news, just 1 (5Club-small) and so with two aces missing, you sign off in 5Spade-small.

Looks like just the two aces to lose? No misadventure to the 5-level this time!

So, plan the play as West leads Diamond-smallA and a second diamond (Diamond-small4) with East following with Diamond-small5 and Diamond-small6, no sign of Diamond-smallJ. (high like). So, what now?

Well, you can guess that something annoying was about to happen! South won the second diamond in hand and led a spade to the jack with West following low and East taking their ace. No 4-0 break to worry about but back came a third small diamond from East…and suddenly South had a problem.

It looked like West had led a diamond from A doubleton. South could take different approaches. They could ruff with Spade-smallQ and hope that there was a 2-2 trump break, or ruff with Spade-small9 hoping that East held Spade-small10 or chance that the lead was not a doubleton and not ruff at all!

Hey, this was supposed to be a straightforward deal! Well, it was but not anymore. South ruffed with Spade-smallQ but then discovered they had a second trump loser for down 1. Unfortunate, but not unlucky!

West Deals
Both Vul

J 8 2

6 5

Q 10 9 3

A K Q J

10 4 3

J 8 4

A J 4

10 9 8 6

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

A

10 9 7 3

8 7 6 5

7 4 3 2

 

K Q 9 7 6 5

A K Q 2

K 2

5

 

West

North

East

South

Pass

1 

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

1 NT

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 NT

Pass

5 ♣

Pass

5 ♠

All pass

 

 

 

Ignoring the danger of a ruff, which South should not, they would have succeeded with any 2-2 or 3-1 spade break or even if East had all 4 missing spades.

Yet, the ruff possibility should loom large in South’s mind and playing the trumps as above created an awful guess. South should simply have played a club to dummy at trick 3 and then played a second club discarding their small heart loser. Now play a small spade and with the above lay-out, South can afford to ruff the third round of diamonds high as there were only 2 trumps outstanding with Spade-smallKJ taking care of them.

Also, leading Spade-small2 from dummy works if East discards on the first round of trumps. Whichever way South tackles trumps, declarer can make with one 4-0 break though the big gain is where West is looking for a diamond ruff, or convinces South that they are. Great lead and continuation by West creating doubt in declarer’s mind. Maybe East had denied holding Diamond-smallJ by the way they followed suit but it was not clear that that was the case.

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Playing a low trump from dummy had the potential of being a big winner for South though on the actual deal, West’s lead and continuation brought a handsome reward for the defence.

Richard Solomon

 

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