Luck that could not hold for long

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 10

Luck that could not hold for long

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignall

For the last two years Paul Hobbs, from Te Awamutu, and I have contested the New Zealand Pairs, with mixed success. We were away to a good start this year when this hand dealt by South with both sides vulnerable was our first:

Pass As West, I led the ace of diamonds against three spades and continued with a diamond to my partner’s jack. The declarer ruffed the king of diamonds and led a club to the king and ace. Back came the eight of hearts, and when South followed suit with the five dummy’s queen was allowed to win. The declarer now saw that if East had started with the queen of spades and two others, he could make his contract with five spades tricks, two clubs, and two hearts. So he cashed the king of spades and led the 10 from dummy overtaking with the jack from his hand. When West won with the queen this was the position, with the defenders having taken four tricks:

Now the declarer was in terrible trouble. The ace and another heart enabled East to ruff and lead the nine of diamonds, promoting West’s nine of trumps and putting the contract three down. Plus 300 was a very satisfactory start for us. We were not proud of our auction on another hand dealt by South, with both sides vulnerable:

♦ KQB6 We were sitting North-

Pass Our final contract of four hearts was rather optimistic. After cashing the ace of diamonds on which East dropped the 10, West switched to the 10 of clubs. The declarer’s problem was that with a bit of

luck he could make four tricks in hearts to go with four in clubs and the ace of spades. If he tried to ruff a diamond in dummy for the tenth trick then he would not make all four hearts. So something else had to be tried.

The second trick was won by dummy’s ace of clubs, and the jack of hearts led and passed when East did not cover. The king of hearts dropped the 10 and revealed the four-two division of the outstanding trumps. Returning to hand with the king of clubs, South ruffed a diamond in dummy, crossed to the ace of spades, and made the ace of hearts and queen of clubs. This was the position:

A club was led to the jack putting East on the horns of a dilemma. If she discarded a spade, South would simply trump a spade with his last heart for his tenth trick.

So East ruffed the jack of clubs, and played the king of spades. But South discarded a diamond leaving East on play to give dummy .the tenth trick with the queen of spades.

Not surprisingly, we could not keep up that sort of luck and eventually faded away into obscuritv.

South: S W , N E 1V 24 24 No 3+ No 4? All