Friday, October 22, 2010
bridge
North-South vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
xA 6
uA J 9 8 3
v7 6 4
wK 8 4
WEST EAST
xJ 10 9 3 2 xK 8 5
uK Q 4 u10 7 6
vJ 9 5 vQ 10 8
w6 5 wQ J 10 2
SOUTH
xQ 7 4
u5 2
vA K 3 2
wA 9 7 3
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1w Pass 1u Pass
1NT Pass 3NT Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Jack of x
The play to some card combinations is nearly automatic. If you know them, you can sometimes make declarer’s life difficult. Here’s a simple case.
A normal three no trump is reached fairly quickly. You make the textbook lead of the jack of spades, ducked in dummy. Partner wins with the king and returns a spade, taken by dummy’s ace. Declarer comes to hand with the king of diamonds and leads the five of hearts. Do you duck or do you split your honors, hoping that partner has the ace of clubs and that dummy is dead? What determines your choice?
Dummy’s nine of hearts is the key to the defense. Given that card, your best chance to defeat the contract is to play low! If declarer plays normally, he will finesse the nine, playing for split honors and for you to have the ten. Partner will win and the contract will go down to defeat.
Note that if you split your honors, the contract will come home. Declarer will allow your queen to win, win your spade continuation with the queen and take a finesse for the king of hearts, scoring four tricks in the suit.
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