Hand of the day #615
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the...
This conundrum was written by Mark Horton and was originally published in the book, Misplay These Hands With Me - you can find out all about it further down the page.
For two weeks in August, the English Bridge Union decamps to Brighton for its summer festival. The Prince of Wales was very fond of Brighton and no doubt the Royal Pavilion provided considerably grander accommodation than the somewhat tired looking hotel in which play takes place.
My partner is a world champion, and while our opponents fall considerably short of that standard, they are well known on the tournament circuit. I pick up my usual uninspiring collection:
Dealer West
North–South Vul.
West passes and partner opens One Diamond. East has nothing to say and I respond One Spade. Partner now jumps to Two Notrump. This shows a powerful hand and our agreement is that it may even contain four-card support for spades. There is little chance partner will have four hearts, but my next bid, Three Hearts, is obvious enough. If partner shows four-card spade support with Three Spades I can choose between Three Notrump, suggesting I am 5-4-2-2, or Four Diamonds — a bid that may be more helpful to partner.
In the event, partner jumps to Four Spades, promising only three-card support, so I have nothing more to say. This has been our simple auction:
West leads the three of clubs and partner delivers a fair dummy.
East takes the ace of clubs and returns the two, West winning with the king and continuing with the jack of clubs, which I ruff. There is nothing complicated about this deal: I am going to need some favorable breaks or the heart finesse.
I start by cashing dummy’s top trumps and when both opponents follow, I turn my attention to the diamond suit. When they break 3–3, I play a fourth round. East ruffs in with the queen of spades and plays a heart. Well, that won’t help as I can win with the ace and cross to dummy with a trump.
Oh, calamity! I am just about to release the ace of hearts when I realize that I ruffed the club with the precious two of spades. With the trump suit blocked, I have no alternative but to hope that the heart finesse is working. It is not my lucky day, for West produces the king and I am one down.
This was the full deal:
Post-mortem
The mistake of ruffing with the two of spades is an error of a type that I hoped I had grown out of. It should be routine for declarer to avoid this type of potential blockage by ruffing the third round of clubs with a middle trump, retaining the precious two.
Horton leads the reader through a plausibly logical line of play on each instructive deal, but one that ends in failure. In each post-mortem, the 'expert' realizes how he could have improved on his play, and (usually) have made his contract. The deals are all from top-class events, which prove to be a remarkably fertile source of such material. A book filled with subtle humor and great bridge. Reviews Misplay with Me is the best written bridge book since Reese. I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Charles Lipman
