Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #24

HOLD-UP PLAY

Brian Gunnell

This is a tale of two errors, see if you can spot them.

♠ A83

♥ 432

♦ QT9

♣ KQ85

N-S Vulnerable

South West North East

1♦ Dbl Rdbl 1♠

3♦ Pass 3NT 4♥

Pass Pass 5♦ Pass

Pass Pass

East’s was presumably sacrificing, figuring that the penalty in 4♥ or 4♠ doubled would be cheaper than conceding a vulnerable game. This pushed N-S to the perilous contract of 5♦, which, as you will see, Declarer is about to bungle.

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ 74

♥ K7

♦ AKJ532

♣ A42

Against 5♦ West led the ♠K, won by Dummy’s Ace and trumps were drawn. Declarer could count 10 top tricks, but where was the 11^th? Not the ♥K as West needed the ♥A to justify his Takeout Double. That meant that a 4^th Club trick was required. Could Clubs have been 3-3?

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Declarer tried to figure out the distribution. East bid both majors and was no doubt at least 4-4 in those suits. He also showed up with 3 Diamonds. That left two Clubs at most. But would East have bid so much with 4=4=3=2 distribution and virtually no HCP? No, it seemed more likely that East was 5=4=3=1 and, if so, Declarer had to hope that East’s Club was the Jack or Ten or Nine. So she cashed the ♣A and, seeing East’s Ten, then took an impressively deep finesse of the Club Eight on the second round! Making 11 tricks.

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