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BRIDGE BITES #85
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DON'T BE FOOLED
Brian Gunnell |
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♠ Q973
♥
QJ98
♦
J943
♣ A |
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E-W Vulnerable
South
West North East
1♥
Pass 3♥
Pass
4♥
Pass Pass Pass
As West, you lead the ♠J
and the defense must conjure up 4 tricks. But be warned! Declarer is a
tricky fellow, and some flim-flam is not entirely out of the question. |
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♠ JT86
♥
K4
♦
AQ5
♣ QT32 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
Your ♠J opening lead is covered
by the Queen, King, Ace. Declarer leads a Club to Dummy’s ♣A, and then takes
the losing Heart finesse. After winning the
♥K
it is time for West to ponder a while. Where will the defense find three more
tricks?
►
Can the defense cash three
Diamonds? Probably not, Declarer is favorite to hold the
♦K
and, anyway, there’s no rush, those Diamonds aren’t going anywhere. It looks
like there is a Spade to cash (based on the play of the ♠Q at Trick 1), but that
also can wait. So you exit safely with a Heart and await developments.
Declarer wins that in Dummy and leads a Diamond to his King and your Ace. Now
what?
►
At this point it might seem
obvious for West to cash the ♠T and the
♦Q
for down one. But by now you should be getting suspicious. Something isn’t
quite adding up here, there’s something fishy going on, what is it?
►
Why hasn’t Declarer led a Spade
to the board, setting up Dummy’s Nine for a Diamond pitch? The reason is that
Declarer doesn’t have a second Spade! That squandering of the Queen at Trick 1
was a clever ruse, designed to fool you. So, what do you play next?
►
The only way to beat the contract
now is to lead a casual low Diamond, hoping that Declarer will misguess
and finesse the Diamond Nine. He probably will, and that will be down one! A
fiendishly deceptive play is foiled by sound logic.
►
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♠ Q973
♥
QJ98
♦
J943
♣ A |
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♠ JT86
♥
K4
♦
AQ5
♣ QT32 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ K542
♥
32
♦
T82
♣ 9864 |
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♠ A
♥
AT765
♦
K76
♣ KJ75 |
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It would have been very easy for
West to fall in the trap of slipping into auto-pilot mode after the play at
Trick 1, basing his defense entirely on the assumption that Declarer had at
least one more Spade. It helps to give count signals when possible when
Declarer plays a suit, in order for the defenders to get a count on the hand.
So, when Declarer crossed to Dummy’s ♣A,
East and West should both play the highest Club they can afford in order to show
an even number. Later, when a Diamond is led from the board, East plays the Two
to show an odd number. This will point to Declarer starting with 1=5=3=4
distribution, and another clue for West that Declarer was up to no good when he
played the ♠Q
at Trick 1!
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