THE GAME OF BRIDGE A SAFETY PLAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 121, 18 November 1939, Page 19

THE GAME OF BRIDGE

A SAFETY PLAY

In the following hand the play which insures a factor of safety for the. declarer's slam contract is most1 interesting. j ■ .* X.4.2. V Q. 7.3. 4 X.5.3.2. * A.7.6. ♦6- North ") ♦ "0-5-V 8- 4- t; ' s VJ. 10.9.6. 4 Q.J:9.7.6.. I 14 10-8. Jf. K.J.8.4.3, |" Boutn. \ Jf, Q. 10.9.2. 4 A.Q.9.8.7.3. A.X.5.2. . 4 A.4. •■..•• '■■;• * 6South dealer. North-South vulnerable. The bidding:— South. ■ West. North. East. 14 ■•■.-.■';. Pass 2 N.T. Pass 3y Pass 3 4 Pass 4 N.T. ■-...-. Pass 5^ Pass 64 Pass 7 4 West leads the Queen of diamonds and South wins with the Ace. Trumps are now led, and South must be careful to lead a small trump to the King first, in order, to be prepared for the possibility of finding East with all' four outstanding; trumps. If this is shown £0 be the case. South can prevent East from making a trump trick. If, on the other hand, West holds all four trumps, nothing can. be done about it, as West must then make a trump trick. A second round of trumps is led, South wins the trick with the Queen, and West discards the eight of clubs. If the adverse spades had been held 2-2, the declarer could have laid down his hand, for his losing heart could be ruffed with dummy's last trump, v To attempt' this play Vis now-extremely dangerous, as there is one outstanding trump. However,' it is still the best play the declarer has at his' disposal; Once the trumps; do hot break: favpurably, everything must depend upbii the heart suit; if, the adyerse : disixibutibn of this suit is 3-3, the contract •:&''-va certainty, but if it is 4-2 a;, trick must be lost if the last trump is" drawn from the dummy hand.J There is oheicharice, ; however, even with this: distributidn^if the hand whicH;holds ihe remaining trump also holds the four hearts'.South therefore proceeds- to lead ouiy three rounds of hearts. On the third round West discards the four. of cltibs . pn1 Souths King. Souths last; heart is now ruffed; with dummy's last trump. The Ace of clubs is led andy a small club is ruffed by South!-- who now draws East's Jack of Spades. /South thus makes his grand slam contract

As was pointed out abbye, if the aid verse hearts are diyided 3-3; al.l^ will be well, as thej hand with the 'third trump cannot make use of it,- but when planning the play of a hand the most unfavourable distribution should" be allowed for. ■, •"■. ■■/);'■ > : .■■-':. y"f'- ; -;-.:

The method of play described is a safety play, since;, if the hearts; are divided 4-2, the declarer gives himself the chance to discover the distribution before it isv. too late., to act; uponV the information; thus gained/ :;*vis

The following handj; which, appeared in the October issue| bf/thev' ißridge World," was sent in to Mrs. Culbertson

Weekly Chat on Contract

Specially Written for "The Post" by "Approach Bid"

for her opinion as to the bidding of th# East-West hands.. West. ' East,- • - 4 K.Q.J.jp.9.8.7.6.5.2. 4 A.4. ' > V '■• ' *Q. 8.7.4. 4 . 4Q.9.5/ ' ' Jft A.X.9. A 'T-5.3.2. West dealer. Neither side rumer^bl*. The actual bidding was:— - West. v East: , . • 24 2 N.T. , -'" •♦, 7* ',•'" ' South doubled. East and West use asking-bids, and' the latter's purpose in opening with two spades without the requisite minimum number of honours-tricks1 wad not only to keep the bidding open but to give himself an opportunity of finding out about the club situation, should <* he receive a positive response. The contract was set one trick. After x I a heart opening lead, South eventually [discarded both red Aces, and retained 1 the guarded Queen of clubs, excellent I defensive play, but very hard luck tot West. In her reply, Mrs. Culbertson points 1 out that a hand of such extreme freak- , ishness does not lend itself to easy I bidding.- The fact that West had to' I locate third-round control in clubs, to N I say nothing of the Ace* of spades. ! created a problem extremely difficult to solve1 even with the aid of askingbids. Also, West's suit was the high-i est ranking, which virtually cuts out one-round of bidding. The result cf , opening with a two-bid was that there were not' enough rounds of bidding available to obtain all' the necessary . information regarding East's hand.

Whatever the bidding methods used, the chances are that ther° must always be a modicum of gambling when selecting the final contract on such a hand as West's. Mrs. Culbertson goes oh to say that it is her sincere conviction that' in order to retain sall the rounds of bidding possible, West should not open with a two-bid, but with a 'mere' one-bid. If this advice, she says, is shocking to players who feel that a, one-bid risks passes by the other three players, she can only pointy out that such an eventuality would be a'minor miracle. Despite the' tremendous playing strength of West's hand,' there arc 4 x five honour-tricks' missing. /T^ith this amount of honour strength outstanding, , Mrs. Culbertson says it .is iriconceiv- - able that North' should have no overcall, that West would be unable to keep the bidding open, or that South would not reopen the bidding. Furthermore, the freakishness of West's hand strongly indicated 'that at least one other hand at the table would also be freakish, and this, in turn, increased' the safety factor of opening with a onespade bid. The foregoing criticism, it is pointed out, is more or less academic, in that it docs not establish just hovr ' West could have determined what the best final bid would be. Asking-bids cannot be put to good use in this- situa- n tion. Mrs. Culbertson's view is thatWest must arbitrarily decide, after opening with one spade and receiving a one no-trump response, that a" small slam is a very gpod gamble,- but^ that a grand slam, depending upon finding the spade Ace and another usable trick in East's hand, is too optimistic.;