Woodside_park Synagogue

Bridge

The Bridge Club will be re-starting after Pesach. More details to follow.


This is the fifth bridge hand in a series compiled by Mark Jacobs.


Please click here to view the previous hands.


When I was taught to play bridge, one of the "rules" when declaring a no trump contract was to hold up your winner in the suit led, in order to exhaust his partner of cards in that suit, so if his partner won a trick he would be unable to lead the suit back. Take the following example:

♠ x x
♥ A Q J 10 9
♦ x x x
♣ A x x
♠ K Q J 10 9 ♠ x x x
♥ x x x ♥ K x
♦ x x ♦ x x x x
♣ x x x ♣ x x x x
♠ A x x
♥ x x x
♦ A K Q x
♣ K Q x


West leads ♠K against your 3NT contract. If you win ♠A on the first trick and take the heart finesse, this loses to east, who can then return a spade for west to run four more tricks. However, by holding up ♠A until the third round, when east wins his ♥K he has no more spades to return, so you just lose two spades and a heart.

However, rules don't apply all the time. Take the following hand:



♠ K 4
♥ 6 5
♦ K J 9 7
♣ K Q 6 5 3
♠ A Q 9 3 2 ♠ J 8 7
♥ Q 3 ♥ A J 10 9 4
♦ 6 2 ♦ A 5
♣ 9 8 7 2 ♣ J 4
♠ 6 5
♥ K 8 7 2
♦ Q 10 8 4 3
♣ A 10

Dealer north, the bidding went ♣1 - ♥1 - 1NT by south, passed out. West leads ♥Q which is ducked round to south. What should he play?

Following the above "rule", south ducked the trick, whereupon west continued with a low spade. South should have gone up with ♠K, but in ducking mode, he played low. East won ♠J and continued hearts, south winning his king. He now tried clubs, which had they broken 3-3 he would have escaped for one off, but he ended up with just four tricks.

Let us replay the hand. South realises that spades are the danger suit and needs to avoid a switch whilst he potentially has ♠K as a stopper for when he loses ♦A. He can afford a spade lead from east, since his ♠K is then safe. Therefore, he wins ♥K at trick one and immediately plays on diamonds, leading to ♦K, since even if clubs break 3-3, he still needs another trick for his contract. East can win ♦A, take four heart tricks and give his partner ♠A, but that is only six tricks for the defence, so 1NT makes. The key is to think about all the potential danger suits.