AUCTION BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 209, 4 September 1931, Page 6

AUCTION BRIDGE.

HANDS FROM PLAY.

(By A. E. MANNING FOSTER.)

Players in all parts of the world are kind enough to send me hands from actual play whicli they have witnessed or in which they have taken part. And very interesting they often are. The best way to improve one's game is to learn by one's' own mistakes and the mistakes of others. The only hopeless players are those who never see* their mistakes or those of their oppoiients. From Hongkong came the following, hand:— A-J 10 6 V— Q 10 9 S 5 ♦ -5 *— 98 7 4 5-A J 7 . ¥-K 3 2 ♦— Q 9 3 | A B ♦—J 10 2 *—K QJ6 52| . *—3 i 7, *—A K 9 V— 6 4 ♦—A K 8 7 6 4 *—A 10 Score, game all, Z deals and bids one Diamond; A, two Clubs; Y, two Hearts: B, two Spades; Z, two no trumps; A, double; all pass. I find little fault with the bidding. Z with only a single guard in Clubs of course took a risk. A's double was quite sound. He had six probable tricks in his hand on the bidding. The Queen of Diamonds was a likely winner, and without relying upon his partner for a single trick it seemed apparent that he could defeat the contract. But this is how the hand was played: Tricks. A Y . B Z 1. C—K C—4 C—3 C—A 2. D—3 D—s D—2 D—A 3 . r>_9 s—6 D—lo - D—K 4. D—Q H—s D—J D— B 5 - C—Q C—7 S—2 C—lo 6. C—J C—B S—4 H—4 7, c—6 v C—9 S—s H—6 Z now led Y's Jack of Spades, B covered with the Queen, and Z made all his Spades and winning Diamonds, losing only a Diamond and two Clubs, and making four by cards. The point I am asked to decide is whether at trick 7 A was right to go on with the Clubs. Should he have placed the King of Hearts with B? I think that A was quite right to continue his Clubs to establish them, relying upon his Ace of Hearts as entry. By playing a Heart he could not save the game, although he would have saved two tricks. Further, at this stage he does not know that B could not make a trick in Spades. The only moral* of this hand is the uncertainty of the most promising looking doubles. Yet I hold that A was quite right to double.