Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #106

A GOOD ATTITUDE

Brian Gunnell

♠ K

♥ J743

♦ J8765

♣ KJ7

♠ T96

♥ T982

♦ AQ

♣ T985

Dummy

West East

Declarer

Both Vulnerable

South West North East

1♠ Pass 1NT Pass

2♥ Pass 3♥ Pass

4♥ Pass Pass Pass

You are West and against 4♥ you lead the Club Ten, won by Partner’s Ace. Partner shifts to the Diamond Two. What’s your plan? And what are your carding agreements in this situation?

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In the middle of the hand (starting at Trick 2), many partnerships play “attitude leads”, whereby shifting to a low card usually shows a high card in the suit, and shifting to a high card is either from a weak holding or from the top of a sequence. If that is your agreement, then it looks as if Partner has the ♦K. So how will you beat this contract?

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It’s easy when (a) you pause for thought, and (b) trust your partnership carding agreements. Yes, you squander your Ace on the first round of Diamonds. Then you lead the ♦Q, which Partner will overtake with that King. The third round of Diamonds will promote a trump trick for the defense. Down one!

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♠ K

♥ J743

♦ J8765

♣ KJ7

♠ T96

♥ T982

♦ AQ

♣ T985

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ J532

♥ 5

♦ KT92

♣ A632

♠ AQ874

♥ AKQ6

♦ 43

♣ Q4

West made the spectacular play on this successful defense but East also had a starring role. The standard lead from that Diamond holding is the Ten, the so-called “top of an interior sequence”. But East could envisage the trump promotion if West also had the right trump holding. So, reasoning that it was more important to advertise his ♦K than it was to make an ambiguous interior sequence lead, East shifted to the Diamond Two. So, good play by both defenders, made possible by sound carding agreements.

A Spectacular Deception! Next, imagine the full deal is slightly different, like this:

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