BRIDGE BITES #67
|
A FREE SHOT
Brian Gunnell |
|
♠ A42
♥
865
♦
9643
♣ T43 |
|
|
None Vulnerable
South West North
East
1♣ 1♥
Pass 4♥
5♣
Pass
Pass
Dbl
Pass
Pass Pass
South boldly
bids up to 5♣
all on
her own and gets rewarded with
a decent dummy. |
♠ QJ7
♥
KQJ97
♦
875
♣ 85 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ T985
♥
AT432
♦
K2
♣ KJ |
|
♠ K63
♥
♦
AQJT
♣ AQ9762 |
|
West leads the
♥K which Declarer ruffs. Over to the
♠A, Club finesse, cash the ♣A,
back to Dummy’s ♣T, then a Diamond
finesse. When the ♦K
comes down doubleton it is 12 tricks no less! Was that a foolish Double by East
or what?
Yes, it’s always embarrassing
when you double them and they make an overtrick. But East missed the chance for
a delicious deception! See if you can conjure up a masterful deceptive play in
order to defeat the contract!
►
When Declarer leads a trump from
Dummy at Trick 3, East might casually play the King! What an extraordinary
play! Now look at the hand from Declarer’s point of view. East “obviously”
started with the singleton ♣K … the bad news is that there is a trump loser to
West’s ♣J85 … the good news is that by now playing low towards Dummy’s ♣T
(instead of cashing the ♣Q) Declarer can force a second entry to the board for
the Diamond finesse.
So, Declarer tries the
aforementioned, but Dummy’s ♣T is taken by East’s Jack! That play of the ♣K has
swindled a trump trick for the defense. And it has also swindled Declarer out
of an entry to the board. Now the Diamond finesse cannot be taken and it’s down
one instead of making with an overtrick!
East’s falsecard was almost a
free shot. East may not have foreseen the havoc it would wreak, he just needed
to know that unless West had the singleton ♣A his play would not cost, and that
one way or another it might gain. As for South, he could have saved the day.
He had ruffed the opening Heart lead with the trump nearest to his left thumb,
and unfortunately for him that was the Two. If he had saved that valuable Two
for later and splurged out with the Six or Seven, he would still have a trump
entry to the board for the Diamond finesse. But who would think of that at
Trick 1?