CONTRACT BRIDGE A Lesson From Every Hand

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 21

CONTRACT BRIDGE A Lesson From Every Hand

[Contributed by J.R W.J Every bridge hand dealt contains a lesson. The most interesting contain more than one, as for example this hand from an international Team-of-Four match. N. S—B H—Q75 D—J74 C—AJ7432 W. E. S—Q 5 3 S—K JlO9 6 4 H—J H—106432 D—Q98653 D—A C—Q 9 6 C—s S. S—A 72 H—AK9B D—KlO 2 C—KlO 8 With neither side vulnerable, and East the dealer, the bidding was: W. N. E. S. No 1H 2D 2H 2S 2 N.T. No 3 N.T. All Pass.

West's semi-psychic two diamond over-call could not prevent North-South reaching their best contract Indeed, antics of this sort are of little use against players who are prepared to bid honestly the cards in front of them. But after West’s opening lead of a small spade, the declarer had one big obstacle to overcome before he could reap the reward for his bidding. It was essential to run the club suit without loss, for he could not afford to let the opponents in to make their long spade tricks. To make all the clubs he could finesse against the queen either way, or he could play out the ace and king hoping the queen would drop. It looks very much like a guess, but to an expert a finesse is seldom a fifty-fifty proposition.

The declarer was Frank Lu of Christchurch, who proceeded to demonstrate a very fine discovery technique. He did not play his ace on the first round of spades, nor on the second, but had to win the third. By this time he had found that East had probably started with a six card suit.

Next he played the ace then queen of hearts and when West showed out, East was marked with five hearts. That made eleven major suit cards, so he was clearly very, short in clubs. Lu therefore played the king of clubs and followed it with the ten which was allowed to run when West smoothly played low. The declarer finished with eleven well earned tricks, having given the spectators in the Open Room a cheap lesson. Different Bidding The auction in the Closed Room was entirely different: W. N. E. S. IS Dble 2S 3C No 3 N.T. No No 4S Dble All Pass. During the bidding one seldom has an easy passage in these matches and NorthSouth did well to reach three no trumps after the barrage of East’s weak opening bid and West’s distributional raise. Nevertheless South was happy to double four spades when East decided to sacrifice, and his opening lead was the king of hearts. On seeing the dummy he quickly switched to the ace and another spade, but the declarer was able to ruff one heart on the table, confining his losers to three hearts, a club and a trump for two down. For East-West minus 300 was a good result in view of the game that was on for the opponents. South had allowed himself to be distracted by the highly competitive auction. His hand was strong in the side suits, and since his partner had indicated some strength, the balance of power was clearly with their side. The defence in these circumstances must try to avoid having its high cards ruffed, which it does by leading trumps as often as possible. The opening lead should be the ace of spades, then another and a third spade when South wins the first round of hearts. Prevented in this way from any trumping in dummy, East would have to lose four hearts, a trump and a club for three down, and a loss on the board instead of the profit he won. South learned his lesson the hard way.