A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 22758, 7 December 1935, Page 13

A BRIDGE CLINIC

AUCTION AND CONTRACT COUPS FOR EVERYDAY

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“Horatius.”)

When you speak about coups in play you will often find someone to tell you that you brought them off because the cards were right; but the line of argument which condemns these plays because they can come off only if the cards are “right” will also involve the abandonment of much bidding, since bids can “come off” only if the cards allow it. The soundest bid made will fail in the face of fresh distribution. A player holding 4 Honour Tricks and six trumps would bid One in suit with confidence; but if the other side holds all the other Honour Tricks posed to advantage and there are seven trumps stacked in one hand, the bid of One comes a sickening thud. Therefore take no notice of these sneers, remembering that sound play is shaped to reduce the chances of defeat and to enlarge those of victory* When you reach the point of saying: “If a certain card is in West’s hand I’m done,” you must play as if that card is in East’s hand —that is your only chance of winning. Grand Coups, trumping your own tricks in order to ensure a lead through an opponent holding a tenace, Vienna Coups, Deschapelles Coups, exits plays and squeezes may be comparatively rare, but they offer the opportunity for saving a contract, so it is as well ‘to understand them. There are, however, everyday “coups” which are worth studying as a means of saving vital tricks. Here is an instance, an opportunity which many players will miss:

West duly leads his partner’s Hearts; a small one is put on from dummy; and East’s Ace takes the trick. The Knave of Hearts is led back, and is captured by North’s King. The Knave of Spades is then led, and the mistake, of course, is to finesse against the King, for West’s obvious play in that case would be to try to put East in with a Club, whereupon East would lead another Heart for West to ruff, and the contract would be broken by one trick. Directly East played a small card on the Knave of Spades South should realize that he must try to prevent the threatened ruff of Hearts by playing the Ace of Spades and leading another one in the hope that trumps are divided two and two. If West has three Spades to the ICing, nothing can save the contract, and the finesse is useless. If East has King and a small one, the finesse is unnecessary, since by taking out trumps the contract is a certainty. If the cards lie as they actually do, again game is made certain by the play of the Ace and a small trump, and is imperilled by taking the superfluous finesse. Often a player is worried by the aces from discards, but if he remembers that as the player of the contract his chief concern is to rid himself of those losing cards which he cannot protect. If he holds the 3 of Spades in dummy and the 2 of Spades in his own hand, he must lose a Spade trick unless he can discard one and protect the other with a ruffer. And if he has to play on a losing trick, is it not good business for him to discard a loser on it. Here is a hand to illustrate this:

South led the Queen of Hearts, and then his remaining Heart, which was taken with the King by North, who then led a third round of Hearts—his Ace. What was East’s correct play? To ruff high (with the King), and’ then play out the Ace and Queen in the hope of finding the Spades divided two and two is to take an unnecessary risk. If trumps are not thus divided, and a trump trick is lost —as would be the case—there is still a Diamond trick to lose, which would break the contract. But if East discards his only losing Diamond on this losing Heart trick, nothing can prevent his making game. When the position appears hopeless, the player must see if there is some means of retrieving the situation by some unusual play; but here again there must be an assumption that certain cards are favourably placed. Take this hand for instance:

South was playing an optimistic Three No-Trumps, to which West opened with the King of Diamonds and when dummy’s cards went-down he saw that only a favourable distribution could save him. The Diamonds looked nasty, so South let the first trick go. It was better to lose one trick in the hope that East might have only two and so be cut off from the £>uit at a later stage. “Ah,” says the Wise One, “but how did he know East had only two Diamonds?” He didn’t. He merely used the losing Diamond to increase his chance of exhausting East. Then South assumed that all the opposing cards were placed as he wanted them and directed his play accordingly, since therein lay his only hope of •. finning. He therefore played the hand as fol-

South concedes remaining tricks.

The turning point was “ducking” in Clubs at trick three in order to place the lead with East. If East has a third Diamond or West the Ace of Spades, the game is up. But at any rate South has ensured that the Queen of Clubs

shall not serve West as a re-entry for his Diamonds. South just made his nine tricks. The hand is an exceedingly lucky one, but the point is that South seized his luck by playing his cards in the only way in which success was possible, if improbable. That is winning bridge.

N. E. S. w. ID IH IS No 2S No 4S No No No — —

South. West. North. East. No No IH Dble No 2D No 2S No 3S No 4S No No No —

lows: 4 1. West. DK North. Dx East. Dx South Dx 2. DQ Dx Dx DA 3. Cx C7 C J Cx 4. SQ Sx Sx SK 5. Cx CK Cx Cx 6. CQ C8 Sx CA 7. Dx Dx Sx CIO 8. DIO D x S x C9 9. Hx HA Hx Hx 10. Hx Hx Hx HJ 11. Hx Dx HQ HK