CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22822, 1 September 1937, Page 22

CONTRACT BRIDGE

II ; DUPLICATE PROBLEMS CHOOSING THE BEST BID BY C. L. EASTGATE Mention was made" last week of tho snatching of a top by good duplicate | players where psychology and alertness enter into tho question of dealing -with knotty problems as they arise. The second hand given, consideration of which was promised this week, was as follows:

(8 I At most tables where this was played, North ended up as declarer at either four hearts or five clubs. As between these two contracts, tho heart bidders came out best. On this same hand, however, tho player we were discussing, who had refused to be carried away by the usual "duplicate considerations" as to play the first hand given last week at no-trumps, now veered sharply in that direction. Ho was correct in this. Tho distribution and | honour-strength of tho South hand ! given above strongly suggested that tin? I North-South hands would play just as well at no-trumps as at a suit, and the :j South player was right to insist mildly i that this should be the final contract. « Results proved this to be good reasoning, and the subsequent correct play | had a somewhat startling finale. This i playar scored an easy top. In the play; West opened the diamond queen. This the declarer won in his own hand, and then carefully considered the two possible methods of attacking the club king. | One was to enter dummy with the s heart king, and finesse toward his own hand; but since the success of this would depend upon East's holding precisely the king and one club, declarer properly concluded that there was almost an equal chance of dropping tho i club king singleton in either hand, I which would not necessitate the removal of dummy's entry. To enter dummy and lead the club queen would | be fatal, since even if the king were ! on side, the suit would then be blocked. [The correct decision to lay down the club ace produced somewhat startling results; the king dropping, South cashed his spades, discarding hearts from dummy. The club suit was then run off, until, with one left, the situation was as follows: —

I* On the last club, East discarded a spade and South the 5 of diamonds. West was "on the spot." In the hope that East had as good as the ten of diamonds, West let go the diamond ace. The rest was easy, of course; declarer leading a heart to his ace, cashing the diamond ten, and back to the king of hearts for the thirteenth trick. It might perhaps be questioned whether a team making a grand slam, but which had only bid game, could come out on top in a hand of this description. But it would have been bad bidding, not good, to have even contracted for a small slam. The lay of the cards had been unexpectedly favourable, and it is not sound policy to anticipate extraordinarily good breaks, just as it is very bad play to fail to capitalise such good breaks when they do appear. The key of this player's success was tho picking of the right duplicate bid, no-trump, and the correct play of tho hand.

| This is in the nature of n double- ! dummy problem. South must play the | hand at 6 clubs. North and South have, quite obviously, "stretched their necks," as the Americans say, in arriving at this contract, but it is not the bidding we are concerned with, but the play. The opening lead is the heart jack; how would you play the hand to fulfil the contract? ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS South (dealer) North A Q J 10 x x x AAKxx A K x x x x x OA x OKxxx •¥» «¥»J x x Bidding: 1 3 A 40 5 A 5 N.T. 7 A A Wanganui correspondent, M.F., writes asking my opinion of the above bidding, as given by the judge in a competition, with a query as to the soundness of the 3-spade response by North to the opening bid. This bid is quitr? sound, the North hand containing 2$ honour-tricks with a doubleton. It is preferable to have the honour strength more evenly distributed, rather than in the trump suit mostly, but it must he remembered that partner, missing I the ace-king of trumps, is more likely fi himself to have outside strength. It is a little bit too strong for a single raise, which might be dropped by partner. The hand is a good illustration of the asking bid (in diamonds) combined with the five no-trump grand slain convention. The five spade response shows second-round control in diamonds and the ace of trumps: the 7-spado repb shows two of the three top honours in spades, and is obligatory.