A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 21820, 24 September 1932, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

(By '

“Horatius.”)

AUCTION

The value of holding off was mentioned last week, particularly when the enemy may be given a chance to make a-mistake, but this was illustrated chiefly with the Ace, both in leading from it and refraining from putting it in too soon. Similar restraint is necessary at times with a lower card, the King for instance. There are occasions when the King must be held back from a certain trick, and these occur usually when Dummy has a long suit to make. The bidding, of course, will assist an alert player to recognise the need for this manoeuvre, but Dummy’s cards usually are enough. Here is a striking case, taken from actual play. The hand occurred in a Contract rubber, but the situation is applicable to Auction, and it illustrates the need for restraint.

South was the dealer and opened the bidding with Two No-Trumps. The Approach Forcing system requires Two Spades here, a much better bid. North said Three Hearts and South went to Six No-Trumps. The bidding revealed an extraordinarily powerful hand at South with a weakness in Hearts. South’s boldness and his adherence to No-Trumps, especially the leap to Six suggests the possession of four Aces, and when Dummy’s hand went down this was almost a certainty. West led his fourth best Diamond, a sound lead, and South overtook East’s 9 with the Ace, false carding in the hope that West might be deceived into believing that East had the King or Queen. South then led the 4 of Hearts, and West made his King. This left the rest of the tricks to South who obtained discards on Dummy’s Hearts. Now West’s intervention with the King was a terrible blunder. He could see Dummy’s long Heart suit, and he counted five of that suit divided between South and East. East might have held the Ace bare; but South’s opening bid in No-Trumps suggested a fairly even pattern, with losing cards in it. If South had no losing cards the slam, was unbreakable, but obviously the best chance of beating South was to confine the lead to his hand, by blocking the Heart suit. Of course if South held only two Hearts, he would sneak a trick with his Queen, but Dummy would then be useless and if South held no other losers, the only difference could be the extra trick making a Little Slam into a Grand Slam. Against that possibility, by no means strong, West could take the line giving him the best chance to defeat the contract. If he holds off the first lead of Hearts, North will win with the Queen, and lead the suit. East’s Heart 8 reveals the position, and if South’s Ace goes in, the King blocks the Heart suit in Dummy and must make a trick. If the Ace is not played, West can credit South with it, put in his King and lead the suit back. If East holds the Ace the contract is beaten; if South holds it, he must lead and lose a Diamond to West and a Spade to East. An interesting hand showing the value of avoiding a finesse is this one played in Canada: X

South (his side vulnerable) bid One Spade and secured the contract. The expert who played the hand, recounting his experience, said: “The Club 2 was opened, on which East played the Ace. Scrutinizing the two hands, I concluded that I was due to lose two Club tricks, assuming that West had led from four to the Queen, which was almost certain. I therefore conveived the bright idea of dropping the Club King on the Ace to create an additional entry to Dummy, so that I could take two finesses in trumps. This brilliant coup was rewarded in the following manner: My first finesse of the Spade 10 lost to the Knave; my second finesse of the Queen lost to the King; but my third lead, the Ace, won with the utmost ease, because West had no more! Thus, my marvellous foresight and card reading on the first trick enabled me to exactly fulfil my contract of one Spade, losing only 3 trump tricks, two Clubs and one Diamond!”

After finishing the play of the next board, and while mulling over the things that might have been, the expert states that a charming young lady, at another table, informed him that she had just made game on the same hand. She reminded him he had told her expert players rarely finessed if there

was any alternative play, so she led out the Ace of Spades, followed by a low one and dropped the King and Jack. She added that she could have finessed because West opened with the 2 of Diamonds and her 10 made, but she preferred to go for the alternative play. Thus the wrong way becomes the right at times.

CONTRACT

Slam bidding is exciting and it is an ! essential part of Contract. Hands I strong enough for slam do not occur I often and a partnership should be able Ito make good use of the opportunities I that do occur. Take the hand quoted I first this week in the Auction column. This was bid in London by players who give preference to No-Trump calling. For clarity let us repeat the cards:

In London the bidding was South Two No-Trumps; North Three Hearts; South Six No-Trumps. This Contract could have been defeated if West had not played like a simpleton in putting in his King of Hearts on the first lead of that suit of South. The bidding of this hand should go this way;

The Opening Bid of Two Spades is Forcing and guarantees the further opportunities. North’s Two Noj Trumps discloses a lack of 1 Honour | Trick and inadequate support for • Spades. South shows his second suit with Three Diamonds and North’s i Three Hearts means a biddable suit, which must be 5-card in length to the I King or if 4-card it must be headed by K-Q-J or K-Q-10, so that the jump to Six Hearts is sound. Six Hearts can be made against any defence. i In the Bridge World Olympic Hand , No. 10 was designed for a Grand Slam, and the bidding is instructive:

■ North was the dealer and N—S were , vulnerable. The bidding given by the judges is as follows:

North’s best bid is One Club. He has seven playing tricks but his 3 Honour Tricks can be more easily shown by 1 the small bid. East’s Diamonds justify , a defensive bid on 1J Honour Tricks. ! South discloses his ability to take the 1 first lead, and forces an answer from North, who shows his re-bid in Clubs. East re-bids his Diamonds to disclose their length. South having eight playing tricks must go for the Little Slam in Clubs, and West going to Six Diamonds does so because he believes ■ defeat in Diamonds will be cheaper than the Slam to N—S. South’s lift to Six. Clubs marks him with the Ace of Spades, a void in Diamonds and good Hearts. His Grand Slam bid is safe. West, knowing East has nothing but Diamonds, prefers to have a Diamond contract, non-vulnerable, set. With East playing the contract at Seven Diamonds, it requires excellent defensive play for North and South to win 6 tricks. South, of course, on the bidding could not open a Club, but selected instead his Heart suit in preference, choosing the King as the card. North overtook with the Ace of Hearts 'in order to lead the singleton Spade Kirfg to pave the way for an oppor- , tunity to ruff a Spade, when his part- . ner obtained the lead. The bidding ' clearly marked the location of the Spade Ace in South’s hand. After laying down the Spade King, North returned a Heart, which South won and led the nine of Spades to give his partner an opportunity to ruff that suit North and South thus won two Heart tricks, three Spade tricks and one Spade ruff, because East was later compelled to surrender two tricks in ■ Spades to South’s tenace holding. I Counting up the points, however, E—W found they had surrendered 1400; but they had prevented N—S from scoring 140 for tricks, 700 for ■ rubber, 1500 for Grand Slam vulnerable, a total of 2340. Thus E—W saved , 940 by going to Seven Diamonds.

S. W. N. E. 1st Rd.: 2S No 2NT No 2nd Rd.: 3D No 3H No 3rd Rd.: 6H No No No

N. E. S. W. 1st Rd.: 1C ID 2D No 2nd Rd.: 3C 3D 6C 6D 3rd Rd.: 7C No No ' 7D 4th Rd.: Bbl No No No