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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Fri yay 2.png   Day…for less experienced players.

The Cruel Game.

Our declarer felt quite proud of himself while playing today’s deal but was not so happy at the end. Decide how you would play the following 4Spade-small contract.

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South Deals
E-W Vul

K 7 4

6 5 3

A K 4

K Q 6 2

   

N

W

 

E

S

   
 

A Q J 6 5 3

A 92

Q 7

J 10

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 ♠

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

South showed a minimum  opening hand with at least 5 spades with their 2Spade-small bid. North could thus jump to game as they knew the partnership had at least an 8-card fit and at least 25 hcp.

West led the Heart-smallK. Your play?

Well, potential good play turned to disaster for South. South realised they could discard one heart loser by playing three rounds of diamonds. So, that is what the did after winning Heart-smallA at trick 1..or that is what they tried to do.

They even remembered to play Diamond-smallQ first which many new players forget. With such a holding as the diamond suit above, play the honour from your shorter suit first so that you can play the high honours in the longer suit without “blocking the suit”.

So, at trick 2, they played Diamond-smallQ and then a diamond to dummy’s Diamond-smallA… and then something unfortunate happened.

South Deals
E-W Vul

K 7 4

6 5 3

A K 4

K Q 6 2

10

K Q J

J 10 9 6 5 3 2

8 5

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

9 8 2

10 8 7 4

8

A 9 7 4 3

 

A Q J 6 5 3

A 9 2

Q 7

J 10

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 ♠

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

On the second round of diamonds, East was able to ruff to win the trick. They then played a heart to West’s Heart-smallJ with West next playing Heart-smallQ, a third winner. Subsequently, East won their Club-smallA to defeat the contract by 1 trick.

It was certainly unlucky to suffer such a bad diamond break, 7 in West’s hand. Yet, South forgot one golden rule. If you can and do not need dummy’s trumps for ruffing losers in declarer’s hand, the first thing you should do when you win the lead as declarer, is to draw the opposition’s trumps so they cannot do you any damage.

South got the order of playing suits wrong. Draw trumps in 3 rounds and then play diamonds, discarding a heart on the third round. Then play clubs. All South will lose is Club-smallA and one heart trick…making one over instead of one under trick.

South could safely draw trumps first. They were certainly unlucky to suffer such a bad diamond break. Yet, had they followed the basic rule of drawing trumps, it would not have mattered.

lesson learned.jpg

A cruel game.

Richard Solomon

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