Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #35

THE CROCODILE COUP

Brian Gunnell

♠ KQT9

♥ 8732

♦ K6

♣ 843

♠ J63

♥ J5

♦ 932

♣ KT976

Dummy

West East

Hamman

We’ll spare you the auction and just say that American many-time world champion Bob Hamman found himself in a poor 6♦ contract after East had overcalled Spades. You are sitting West.

You lead the Spade Three, Dummy plays the King, East the Ace and Declarer ruffs. Then a Diamond to Dummy’s King, a Diamond to Declarer’s Jack, and the ♦A. Partner follows with the Seven, Ten and Queen. With trumps drawn, Declarer now plays ♥A, ♥K, ♥Q, East playing the Four, Six, Ten. As Hamman is going along his merry way, what have you been doing other than following suit?

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That’s right, you have been busy counting the distribution, because that’s what successful defenders do. Declarer ruffed the first Spade so East is known to have started with 6 Spades. Diamonds? East started with three of those also. How many Hearts does Partner have?

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When Declarer leads a side-suit, the defenders give count when they can (sometimes it’s not possible, as fighting for the trick obviously takes precedence). Standard count signals are low-high to show an odd number in the suit and high-low to show an even number. On the play of the Hearts, Partner played low-high and therefore started with three of them. So, Partner started life with 6=3=3=1 distribution.

Next, Declarer leads a low Club from his hand. Are you wide awake?

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You must avoid the temptation to win this cheaply with the Nine. If you do indeed play the Nine, East may be forced to overtake with the Jack or the Queen, and will have to lead a Spade (that’s all he has left), allowing Declarer’s Club losers to go away on Dummy’s Spades. Instead, you alertly squander the ♣K, swallowing Partner’s singleton honor, and you return the ♣T. Now Declarer never reaches Dummy’s Spade winner, and eventually loses another Club. Nice defense! When this deal was played in the 2006 World Championships, West was caught napping and missed that Crocodile Coup.

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♠ KQT9

♥ 8732

♦ K6

♣ 843

♠ J63

♥ J5

♦ 932

♣ KT976

Dummy

West East

Hamman

♠ A87542

♥ T64

♦ QT7

♣ J

♠

♥ AKQ9

♦ AJ854

♣ AQ52

No doubt, in a World Championship, West would have been expected to find the winning defense, but that does not detract from Hamman’s fine play. Note especially the decision to leave Dummy’s Spade winner stranded, temporarily reducing the trick total from 11 to 10. Cashing the Spade before taking the trump finesse would have been fatal, giving the defenders an easy (Spade) exit in the end-game.

When you were sitting in the West seat, we gently reminded you of the importance of counting. And that was how you cleverly came up with the winning Crocodile Coup. Hamman also was counting, and also concluded that East was 6=3=3=1, prompting him to go for the end-play that you saw. But, suppose that the layout had been slightly different:

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♠ KQT9

♥ 8732

♦ K6

♣ 843

♠ 8763

♥ J5

♦ 932

♣ J976

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ AJ542

♥ T64

♦ QT7

♣ KT

♠

♥ AKQ9

♦ AJ854

♣ AQ52

Let’s say that, once again, Declarer correctly diagnoses the distribution and plays East to be 5=3=3=2. The play goes the same as before, reaching this position:

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