HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 702, 29 June 1929, Page 27

HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Unblocking Partner’s Suk

<*» “Caliban” in the “Nation and Athenaeum" —Through th-e Courtesy of Lh-e Pu&Hahtj* THE beginner (this article is for beginners) is not unnaturally reluctant to play a hi(: card of a suit to a tricsk won by his partner. Yet it i 3 often necessary that he should do so—in order that his partner, at a subsequent trick, may not be deprived of the lead. Getting rid of high cards, with this end in view, is known as unblocking the suit, and the beginner must always be looking out —in No-Trump hands especially —for ihe occasion when it is his duty to unblock. The experienced player, in sueh situations as we are about to consider, will unblock automatically.

Spades K x x x Hearts A 10 x x Diamonds x x Clubs xxx Spade* x -- ■ - —Spades J 10 x x Hearts K x Hearts x x x x Biamoncte Q J 10 r Diamond* xxx Clubs KQlOxxxx j | Clubs A x Spades A Q x x Hearts Q J x Diamonds A K x x x Clubs J

Here, perhaps, is the simplest case. The score is Love All. Z calls One No-Trump and all pass. (It would be quite wrong of A to call his Clubs; he does not want to drive his opponents into a game-winning call in a suit, and with two possible cards of entr}% and the lead, he has an excellent chance of defeating the contract.) A, of course, leads the King of Clubs; B, if he is not a novice, will automatically overtake the Bang with his acc, and will then return his small Club. AB make seven tricks in Clubs, and ZY are one down on their contract. But if B does not play his Ace on A’* King, and so “unblock” the suit, ZY go game and rubber. How does B know that it is “safe” for him to play his Ace, and that he is not risking the loss of a trick by doing so? He deduces this from A’s lead of the King. This shows that A holds either six or more Clubs, headed by King, Queen, or four or more headed by King, Queen, ant! another honour. In the former case, Z cannot have the suit guarded; it the latter case, only if A has four Clubs to the King, Queen, ten, and Z has four to the Knavo. But even in this case (as a little reflection will show) B cannot make an extra trick by holding up the Ace. AB therefore have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by B’s unblocking of the suit. Let us now consider a slightly more difficult case. Diamonds Q 10 Y ® Diamonds J 8 4 Z The Call is One No-Trump, and A leads the King of Diamonds. How should B play his cards? 'We need only consider, for the purposes of this illustration, the distribution of the Diamonds. B, when playing to the first trick, can see six of them—the King, which A has led, the Queen and tenin Dummy, and the Knave, eight, and four in his own hand. A novice in B ’ B place, would probably play the four as a matter of course. But a more experienced player would stop to think, and the deductions he would draw would be as follows t—(1) A’s lead shows that he has at least six Diamonds, of which (2) one is the Ace. (Dor the lead of the King shows either Ace or Queen, and the Queen is visible in Dummy.) (3) Therefore Z has at most two Diamonds, and hence (4) there is no danger of the third trick in Diamonds falling to Z however B plays his cards. (5) A’s next lead will be the Ac,e. If then B plays his four and eight two to the first two tricks, he must take the third wih the Knave 'sinee Dummy’s Queen will have fallen), and therefore he must block the suit Hence he must get rid of the Knave before the third trick. (6) But t his is not all. He must also get rid of the eight, since if Z has the nine the eight will block the suit at the third round as effective] v as the Knave. (7) The proper play, therefore, is the Knave at trick 1, and the eight at trick 2, which ensures the unblocking of the suit. The instinctive recognition that both these cards must be disposed of marks the different* between good and bad play.