Bright Start

13th June – Board 23: Game All. Dealer South.

Clever conventions are all very well but they can sometimes be of use to the opponents too. That should have been the case with the following hand when, after a bright start, the defence somewhat lost their way.

	North: S 10 9 6 H 6 4 2 D A 4 3 C Q J 5 3
West: S 8 4 2 H 9 5 D K 9 8 6 2 C K 9 8		East: S A Q 7 3 H K Q J 8 7 D Q J 10 C 10
	South: S K J 5 H A 10 3 D 7 5 C A 7 6 4 2

West	North	East	South
			1NT
No	No	2C	No
2D	No	2H	End

East has a close call between doubling 1NT or using an Asptro type bid of 2C showing, in this instance, a hand with five hearts and another four card undisclosed suit. Maybe with the opposition vulnerable double has the edge because a one-trick defeat will attain the magic +200, always a good result at pairs, whereas a non-vulnerable +100 will lose out to any E/W pair making 2H. At any rate 2H it was and South found the best lead of the seven of diamonds. North did well by ducking this and declarer led a top trump, won by South who continued diamonds and then got his ruff. So far, so good. But by this time South knows that East started with five hearts, three diamonds and another four-card suit. Can it be clubs? No, because then his partner would have started with six spades and would have transferred over 1NT so declarer is marked with a 4-5-3-1 distribution. Armed with this knowledge after obtaining his ruff South should have cashed the ace of clubs and exited with the ten of trumps. Left to play spades from his hand declarer would have suffered a one trick defeat, but sadly for N/S it didn’t go quite like that.

Undeserved Reward

28^th March – Board 22: East/West Vul. Dealer East.

It’s strange how bridge hands seem so much easier to deal with after the event, which was certainly the case on the featured hand although the right play – not found at the table – would have led to an inferior result.

	North: S none H A 8 5 D Q 9 7 5 4 C K Q J 6 4
West: S K Q 6 2 H 10 6 3 D A J 8 6 C 9 2		East: S 10 9 7 4 H Q J 4 D K 3 2 C 10 8 3
	South: S A J 8 5 3 H K 9 7 2 D 10 C A 7 5

West	North	East	South
		No	1S
No	2D	No	2H
No	3C	No	3NT
End

The bidding was straightforward to the no-trump game and West led the six of diamonds which I ducked to East who returned a low spade. Now I should have seen that with the diamond suit frozen my only real chance was to hope that hearts divided 3-3 when I could make one spade, three hearts and five clubs. All this was predicated on the fact that I would not lose two spades quickly, which really needed East to hold both the king and the queen in which case I should have played the knave. Indeed if that had held I would have had nine tricks irrespective of the heart division. Instead I played the eight which turned out to be the winning line. West won and played a heart, which I ducked, but I now had nine tricks. If East had returned the ten of spades then West could have won over the knave and returned the suit and now I would have been a trick short. Curiously I see that 4H cannot be beaten.

Second Sight

4th October – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

It seems to me that without the gift of second sight 3NT should fail on the hand shown below with two many high cards being in the wrong place.

South might rebid 2♣ I suppose but with a stop in both doubletons I would rather go for the no-trump option. But on a diamond lead what are you going to do? The text book way of going about a hand like this is to duck the opening lead completely, win the next round perforce and then attack one of the two suits that need to be established. However whichever line you chose should end in failure with West holding both aces and five diamonds which can now be easily established. If you (mistakenly) win the first diamond, knock out either missing ace and (mistakenly) win the second diamond you will prevail however, with the diamond suit being blocked.