Contract Bridge Seeking An Extra Chance

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 18

Contract Bridge Seeking An Extra Chance

(•Contributed by J.K.W.) One of the fascinating aspects of bridge is that the skill of the good player is often matched by the luck of the not so good. In the long run, of course, skill will ' triumph, but sometimes it can be a very long run, or i so it seems to the expert who has carefully planned and laboriously executed a successful squeeze, only to find he could have achieved the same result much more quickly by taking a simple finesse. South in this deal gave a fine demonstration of card play: (N) S—AQJ2 H—7 6 D—KB42 C—K43 (W) (E) S—4 3 S—lo-5 H—QJ32 H—KlO54 D—QlO65 D—A93 C—lo 8 6 C— Q J 52 (S) S—K9B76 H—A9 8 D—J7 C—A97 When South made the rather doubtful decision to open, the bidding proceeded: S W N E IS No 2D No 2S No 4S All Pass. Playing the Acol system, North could not raise his partner immediately to three spades for this would have shown about 11 points, and would not have been in any way forcing. Nor would four spades have been a good first response, for this bid is reserved for hands with fewer high cards but better distribution. North, therefore, fell back on the delayed game raise, first bidding his side suit, and over his partner’s rebid, jumping to game. This indicated a hand of opening strength with good trump support Had the partners been playing Goren, the bidding would have been one spade from South, three spades from North and four from the opener. Against four spades West led the queen of hearts and the declarer took stock. A heart and a club were obvious losers, so the hand seemed to turn on the position of the ace of diamonds. If it were with West only one trick in that suit would be lost but if East held it there could be two losers there. South was unwilling to risk his contract on the position of one card, so he searched for a way to give himself an extra chance. He first allowed the heart queen to win, retaining control of the suit, and preparing the way for a ruff in dummy. The heart continuation was won with the ace, two rounds of trumps drawn, and a heart was trumped. South now cashed the ace and king of clubs and led a third round which was won ' by East At this stage neither 1 declarer nor dummy had any hearts or clubs. If East led 1 one of these suits South ' would discard a diamond ’ from his hand and trump in 1 dummy, limiting his losers in the suit to one only. East i was thus forced to lead his < ace of diamonds, and North’s 1

king was good for the tenth trick. South was justifiably proud of his play, but as often there was an alternative way to make the contract After ducking the first heart, winning the second, drawing two rounds of trumps and ruffing a heart on the table, the first diamond is led from dummy towards the jack, in the hope that East holds the queen, will play low and that the jack will draw the ace. In this hand, however, West will win the knave with the queen and switch to a club. South wins in hand, to lead a diamond towards dummy. When West plays low it is a fair assumption that he does not hold the ace, so a low card is played from the table allowing the defence to win its third trick. The club continuation is won in dummy and a third round of diamonds Jed. East has to play his ace which is gratefully trumped, dummy is entered with a spade and declarer’s last club is discarded on the good king of diamonds.

There we have two lines of play, one elegant and spectacular, the other simple and rather lucky. But the second is just as successful as the first Perhaps elegance is its own reward.