Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #21

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

Brian Gunnell

Forgive the grandiloquent title, we are not talking here about Lewis and Clark, nor the HMS Beagle, nor even Christopher Columbus. We merely refer to Declarer’s intelligent (but hardly epic) play of the ♣K in the following deal:

♠ K9

♥ 854

♦ QT

♣ QJT842

E-W Vulnerable

South West North East

1NT

2♠ Pass Pass Pass

Just in case it happens to be a really useful clue, we should point out that East’s 1NT showed 15-17 HCP.

West leads the ♥J which holds the trick. East wins next two tricks with the ♥Q followed by the ♥A. Now East cashes the ♦A and continues the suit. You can win this in hand or in Dummy, and must decide how to tackle trumps. What is the percentage play?

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ AJT652

♥ 963

♦ KJ3

♣ K

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With a combined holding of 8 trumps the percentage play is to finesse against the Queen rather than to play for the drop. It’s a two-way finesse … you can lead towards Dummy and finesse the Nine … or, alternatively, you can cash Dummy’s King and finesse the other way. All things being equal (that is, with no clues from the bidding and the play) you would lead to the King and then finesse against East. Is that how you would play the trump suit?

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The answer is “maybe”. You can eliminate all guesswork by discovering more about the hand first. If your next play (after winning the second Diamond trick) is to play the ♣K, then you will find out who has the Ace in that suit. How will that help?

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East has already shown up with ♥AKQ and ♦A. That’s 13 HCP. So you can see that if East has the ♣A that gives him 17 HCP and no room for the ♠Q … and if East does not have the ♣A then he must have the ♠Q for his 1NT opening. Playing the ♣K before tackling trumps is a so-called “discovery play”.

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