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BRIDGE BITES #45
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FIND THE LADY
Brian Gunnell |
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♠ AQ54
♥
KT7
♦
KT432
♣ 3 |
N-S
Vulnerable
South West North
East
3♣
Dbl 5♣
6♠
Pass Pass Pass
West’s 3♣
was a weak bid, usually showing a 7-card suit,
and
East’s 5♣
was a further attempt to gum up the N-S
bidding.
Nonetheless, N-S get to the good 6♠
contract,
all you have
to do now is to make 12 tricks.
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Dummy
West East
Declarer |
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♠ KJT3
♥
AQJ
♦
AJ95
♣ J4 |
West’s Ace won the opening Club
lead and the next Club was ruffed in Dummy. Assuming that trumps are not 5-0,
the contract hinges on not losing a Diamond trick. At this point in the
proceedings, which defender is favorite to hold the
♦Q?
►
West presumably has seven Clubs and East just
three. Therefore, East has ten non-Clubs in his hand, compared to West’s six.
In other words, there is more room in East’s hand for other cards, such as the
♦Q.
But, before playing Diamonds, trumps must be drawn, and it turns out that West
has one Spade and East has four. Does that change things?
►
It sure does! Now we have a count on Clubs
and Spades, in which suits West has a total of eight and East has a total of
seven. Things have evened out and the presumption that East has the
♦Q has
weakened. Should you now play for the drop in Diamonds, hoping that the suit is
2-2 or that someone has the singleton ♦Q?
►
Not yet! First you will cash three Hearts,
trying to get more information. As it happens, West shows out of the third
round of Hearts. Now, for the last time of asking, how do you play the Diamond
suit?
►
Cashing the Hearts has provided the last piece
of the jigsaw. Now the hand is an open book, West surely started with 1=2=3=7
distribution, in which case you will cash the ♦A,
and finesse against West for the Queen on the second round.
►
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♠ AQ54
♥
KT7
♦
KT432
♣ 3 |
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♠ 7
♥
42
♦
Q86
♣AQ98765 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ 9862
♥
98653
♦
7
♣ KT2 |
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♠ KJT3
♥
AQJ
♦
AJ95
♣ J4 |
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So, to summarize how the pendulum
swung on this hand:
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After the bidding East was favorite to hold the
♦Q because he
had shorter Clubs.
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After trumps had been drawn, the
barometer was hovering around “Neutral”, as in Spades and Clubs, the defenders
had seven and eight cards respectively.
-
After Hearts had been cashed,
things had reversed completely and it was now West who was known to be longer in
Diamonds.
By the way, if N-S had declared 6♦
they would probably be down one! Declarer would not have the luxury of testing
the major suits before drawing trumps and, with only the bidding to guide her,
she would no doubt play East for the Diamond length.
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