A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 22728, 2 November 1935, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

AUCTION AND CONTRACT HANDLING THE CARDS

Horatius).

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All the bidding schemes fall down if the play of the cards is not good enough, and this applies to the defence as well as to the declarer, because one of the arts of the game is the manipulation of the closed hands so that the contract may be defeated. The defensive play is the most difficult, the most interesting, the most thrilling of the game. At all times be on the alert, because even the dullest hand may suddenly offer opportunities for slipping under the declarer’s guard and defeating him before he can bring his great strength into action. There are many occasions on which the contract is set before the declarer can “get going.” The chance to make the necessary tricks early leads to unusual plays by the defence with the use of card signals. These unfortunately are too often neglected. Nothing is more important to the defence than the first card played by the partner of the leader. If he follows suit he can by throwing a low card signal to his partner the fact that he suggests a switch to another suit; if he plays a reasonably high card he encourages the leader to persist with the suit; if on the second lead he plays a card lower than his first one, he tells his partner he will take the third trick, either with the highest outstanding honour or with a trump. Against NoTrump contracts the first card played is also informative. If it is high it may be the first of an echo, signalling only two in the suit, if it is low it may signal three cards in the suit. These examples are enough to show that useful information can be imparted. There is a case of a contract defeated when, under pressure of a squeeze, East, whose hand was hopeless, discarded 2, 3 and then 5 of Diamonds in the hope that his partner noticing the absence of the 4 would place that card in the declarers’ hand and know which suit to protect for the last trick. It was a slim chance, but it. came off, and it showed what an alert defence can do. Here is a hand which gave the defenders a chance.

The bidding in the first game was:

West led the Queen of Hearts, which East took with the Ace, South playing the 2. Now East can infer that his partner held Q-J-10-x and that South K-x. The only possibility would be a lead from* a singleton, but that would mean South holding 5 Hearts to the K-J-10 and he would have bid them over the Clubs. South probably has 6 Spades, and 2 Hearts, leaving 5 cards for Clubs and Diamonds. He probably holds two Clubs at most. Therefore, the only possible play is to remove the Ace of Diamonds from Dummy, and to hold off the Club suit until it Is clear that South has no more to put Dummy in. East’s only lead is the King of Diamonds, which will force the Ace. Now, West should note this play and note its significance. It does declare positively that East holds the Ace, but there is a strong indication that the Club suit can be stopped. Therefore, West’s duty is to give East an indication of his Club length as soon as he can. If he hold 7-4, he should throw the 7 on the first lead and the 4 on the second, if he hold 4-5-7 he should throw the 4 and then the 5. East will know the 4 is the lowest and he will judge accordingly. Of course, if South holds the Queen of Diamonds this lead will save him a trick; but it offers the only hope of defeating the contract, so the chance must be taken. Remove the last of Dummy’s entry cards when there is a suit waiting to be established. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies and here are the complete hands to show you what East s play meant:

As it happens, East’s lead is effective. South must clean up the trumps and lead a Club to Dummy. He leads the 5 and on this West played the 8. East knew West had two Clubs, so he held back the Ace. The next lead of the Club sees the Ace go in and Dummy becomes a spectator, the defence making two tricks in Diamonds, one in Hearts and one in Clubs. South can counter East’s move by letting the King of Diamonds win. Now, if East’ goes on with the Diamonds North’s Ace will make and a lead to the King of Hearts will allow South to lead and ruff the Jack of Diamonds with North’s solitary trump. The King of Clubs will then throw the lead to East and South will make his contract with one more Club trick. Do not always fall for the cross-ruff as the means of making a contract. Before you embark on a cross-ruff play see where it will lead you. Here is a contract that was lost by a player who could not resist the cross ruff lure:—

N-S vulnerable and East deal. The bidding was:

If "West had used the Informatory Double over One Spade E-W would have made a small slam in Clubs or Diamonds, but West, as the enemy was double preferred the dangerous game of waiting for penalties. West led the King of Clubs, followed by thb King and Ace of Diamonds, South ruffing the third trick. South should have counted his winners for he would have seen that by drawing the trumps and leading out Hearts he makes his contract. Instead of doing this he went cross-ruffing. He led a Club at trick four and ruffed it in Dummy. If he now draws trumps, he

is too late. West, on getting in with a Heart, makes another Club—four tricks in all. Foreseeing this, South decided to ruff his last Club. He thought the best way of putting himself in was to lead another Diamond and trump it in his own hand. But South was overruffed by West. He was no doubt unlucky to encounter such an abnormal distribution of Diamonds after getting no warning from the bidding. The point, however, is that there was no need to take the risk of cross-ruffing. It is curious to note that West could have improved his prospects of defeating the contract by leading another Club at trick two. But he can hardly do this unless East has the prescience to encourage him by "throwing the Queen on the first trick. The procedure of forcing the weak hand is unusual, but sometimes successful. There is no excuse for South. Without a knowledge of the disposition of the cards, his task was quite simple. His strange lapse can be accounted for only by the passion for cross-ruffing.

s. W. N. E. IS NO 2C NO 4S NO NO NO

E. S. W. N. No IS No 3S No' 4S Dbl No No No