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BRIDGE BITES #65
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NICE TRY
Brian Gunnell |
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♠ A9752
♥
985
♦
A97
♣ 64 |
None Vulnerable
South West North
East
1♣ 1♥
1♠ 2♥
3♣ Pass Pass Pass
West cashes
the ♥K
and gets the discouraging Four from
East. West
shifts to a trump, after which things look bleak
for
Declarer! From the bidding and the play to the first trick
it appears that West has overcalled with
♥AKxx.
How do you avoid
losing five tricks?
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Dummy
West East
Declarer |
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♠ 43
♥
Q32
♦
Q2
♣ AKQJ93 |
►
After drawing trumps, you could
try ducking a Spade, your hope being that the suit is 3-3 and that the Diamond
loser will eventually go away on the long Spades. What’s wrong with that idea?
►
That won’t work against good
opponents, they will take care that the defender without the
♦K wins that
Spade trick and shifts to a Diamond, knocking out the entry to Dummy before it
can be used to access the future Spade winners.
Any other ideas?
►
The only chance is an end-play
against West. If you can force him to play a second round of Hearts or to lead
the first round of Diamonds (away from his hoped-for King), then one of your
losers will disappear. You’ll need West to have the doubleton Spade King, in
which case you can draw trumps, play a Spade to the Ace, and exit a Spade. West
is forced to win the trick with his ♠K, and must now play one of the red suits.
Bingo, that’s 9 tricks!
►
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♠ A9752
♥
985
♦
A97
♣ 64 |
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♠ KJ
♥
AKT7
♦
K84
♣ T753 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ QT86
♥
J64
♦
JT653
♣ 8 |
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♠ 43
♥
Q32
♦
Q2
♣ AKQJ93 |
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That was well done, but if Zia
had been sitting West he would have dumped the ♠K on the first round of Spades!
How do you overcome that setback?
►
No problem! Your clever counter
would be to duck that trick (remember, the idea is to keep East off lead) and to
win the Spade return with Dummy’s Ace. Now you ruff a Spade and, when Zia shows
out, you can count his original distribution as 2=4=3=4. This is the position
with one trump left to be played:
►
Dummy
♠ 9
♥ 9
♦ A97
♣
Zia
East
♠
♠ Q
♥
AT ♥ J6
♦
K84 ♦
JT
♣
♣
Declarer
♠
♥ Q3
♦ Q2
♣ 9
You cash your last trump and Zia is squeezed! He has these unpleasant choices:
-
If he comes down to
♥AT
♦K8,
you play ♦A
and out a Diamond, end-playing him in Hearts.
-
If he comes down to
♥A
♦K84,
you throw him in with a Heart and make a surprising overtrick!
Good defense, Zia, but not quite
good enough!
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