Page 16 - BB201111

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16
B
ETTER
V
OL
. 16, N
O
. 2
B
RIDGE
N
OVEMBER
/D
ECEMBER
2011
The Play’s the Thing
You have a heart loser, a diamond loser, and two club
losers. You need to get rid of a loser. Once your A is
driven out, the losers are ‘quick’. If you let the opponents
in before doing something about one of the losers, they
will be in a position to take their tricks and defeat the
contract. So you can’t start by drawing trumps and letting
them gain the lead with the A.
You do have two extra spade winners in dummy on which
you could discard both club losers. Unfortunately, there is
no immediate entry to dummy. If you take the K and lead
a heart or a diamond, the defenders will win and take their
club tricks. Instead, you must sacrifice one of the spade
winners. Win the A,
lead the K, and overtake with
dummy’s A. Then play the Q and discard a club.
You still
have to lose a heart, a diamond, and a club, but that’s OK.
Here are two challenging deals, with the contracts established and the lead given. How would you play them?
Assume you are playing rubber bridge or a team game where the objective is to make the contract.
Have some fun with this. Cover the bottom part of the page while you plan the play. Then see how well you did.
N
ORTH
(D
UMMY
)
A Q 8 6 3
Q 6
K J 6
10 7 6
W
EST
E
AST
10 5 2
J 9 7 4
9 2
A 3
10 8 3 2
A 9 7 4
K Q J 4
9 3 2
S
OUTH
(D
ECLARER
)
K
K J 10 8 7 5 4
Q 5
A 8 5
N
W
E
S
N
ORTH
(D
UMMY
)
A Q 8 6 3
Q 6
K J 6
10 7 6
W
EST
E
AST
L
EAD
:
S
OUTH
(D
ECLARER
)
K
K J 10 8 7 5 4
Q 5
A 8 5
You are South. West leads the K against your 4
contract. How do you plan to avoid losing four tricks?
N
W
E
S
D
EAL
T
WO
C
ONTRACT
: 4
K
A
NSWERS
N
ORTH
(D
UMMY
)
K 7 3
A 6
Q 10 6
9 8 6 4 2
W
EST
E
AST
L
EAD
:
S
OUTH
(D
ECLARER
)
A 6 5 4 2
Q 8 4
K J 5
K 5
You are South.West leads the J against your contract
of 2 . What is your plan to avoid losing six tricks?
N
W
E
S
D
EAL
O
NE
C
ONTRACT
: 2
J
Assuming the missing spades are divided 3–2, you have
one spade loser. You also have two heart losers, a diamond
loser, and two club losers. That’s one too many. You could
plan to lead toward the K, hoping East holds the A, or
to lead toward the Q, hoping East has the K. If neither
finesse works, however, you can still trump a heart loser in
the dummy, but you will need to be careful with entries.
You have to give up a heart before you can ruff a loser,
and the defenders may lead a second round of trumps.
With no sure entry back to your hand other than the A,
win the first trick with dummy’s K
.
Then play the A and
a heart toward your Q.
The finesse loses, andWest leads
another trump.You win the A in your hand and are in the
right place at the right time to trump your remaining heart
in the dummy. You can now try leading toward the K.
N
ORTH
(D
UMMY
)
K 7 3
A 6
Q 10 6
9 8 6 4 2
W
EST
E
AST
J 10 9
Q 8
K J 9 3
10 7 5 2
8 7 4 2
A 9 3
A 3
Q J 10 7
S
OUTH
(D
ECLARER
)
A 6 5 4 2
Q 8 4
K J 5
K 5
N
W
E
S