Hand of the day #241
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff What do you think the result of a heart contra...
This conundrum was written by Danny Roth and was originally published in the book Better Declarer Play - Placing the Cards - you can find out all about it further down the page.
Question 1
West leads the ♠10 to his partner’s ♠K. You allow this to hold and duck again when East returns the ♠J, overtaken by West. On the third round, East discards the ♥5 as you win. How do you continue?
There are eight top tricks and, unless the ♣Q and ♣J drop doubleton or there is a restricted-choice play when one of them is singleton with East, an extra trick will be needed in diamonds. If both defenders follow low on the first two rounds and West plays low again when you start a third round from hand, you will be faced with a guess: finesse or drop. There is no need to rush to this critical moment as long as you can keep West off play. At Trick 4, play a low club. If West plays low, put in the ♣10, losing to East. If he plays a heart honor, let that hold and take the second round. Now, cash winners in both clubs and hearts and you may get an accurate count on the hand.
Possible deal:
Here, West will show up with two each in hearts and clubs and you know that he started with five spades. That leaves four diamonds and the ‘guess’ is now a certainty. If West follows three times to either hearts or clubs, you will play East for the ♦J. If West follows three times to both, East is marked with at least four diamonds and a first-round finesse against him is probably your best chance.
Score 10 if you found the line as above. Reduce to 6 if you took an early decision in diamonds.
Question 2
East showed a natural weak two and West leads the ♦J to East’s ♦A. East returns the ♣8 to the ♣10, ♣J and ♣A. How do you continue?
It will be necessary to pick up both major-suit kings, implying that they must be with East for both finesses to work. However, East is marked with the ♦AQ and giving him both kings would bring him up to 12 points and a one-level opening rather than a weak two. Thus, West will have to hold one of those kings.
You have ten spades on view but only nine hearts; so the drop in spades is a slightly better chance than that in hearts. Play a spade to the ace, draw trumps and take the heart finesse.
Possible deal:
If East produces the ♠K on the first round, you will have to assume that the ♥K is offside and singleton with West; that is, that East was dealt 1=3=6=3 shape.
Score 10 if you found the line as above. Reduce to 4 if you started with an early spade finesse.
The second book in Danny Roth’s intermediate-level series on declarer play, this book covers topics that, once mastered, will bring any intermediate player an immediate improvement in their scores. Topics include: placing the cards missing one honor, missing two honors, missing three honors, inferences from the defense and second-degree assumption. This book is designed to help you to get a more accurate picture of the unseen hands and thus avoid ‘wild guessing’; or, at least, improve your chances of avoiding unnecessary mistakes.
As always, the author’s clear exposition of his points is followed by a collection of quiz problems where the reader can test their understanding of this new-found knowledge.
