| 3rd European Open Bridge Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 7 - Friday 22 June 2007 |
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Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself We saw this deal before, where the defenders (North especially) have to be very alert to give West a losing option in Six Diamonds. But as Sabine Auken demonstrated, South has a part to play in the defence too.
Zia’s double of Four Spades was routine – for him. He guessed well to lead a low trump, and Shenkin immediately knew that the double was psychic – but what did it suggest, if anything? The normal line is to run the trumps and see what happens. As we discussed before, the contract should make if declarer reads the layout, but West was confronted with a further wrinkle when dummy’s diamond seven held the first trick! At this point with the lead in dummy Shenkin inferred that the club ace figured to be offside (with no club lead) so that the ruffing heart finesse was the best and quickest way to make the hand. With barely an hour’s thought, Barnet passed the heart queen from dummy. Down one! Nicely defended by Sabine Auken to give declarer that extra entry for the losing option of the ruffing finesse. The Power of the Closed Hand Tony Forrester produced a BOLS bridge tip 20 years ago demonstrating the power of the closed hand. I promptly stole it for my ‘Step by Step guide to deception ‘ – being republished later this year, and GeO Tislevoll obviously took the message to heart here.
* Forcing Many tables made an overtrick in Four Hearts after the lead of a club or a diamond. North guessed well to lead a trump, and GeO won in hand and led a club to the king and a diamond towards his jack. South was tested, but passed the first trial when she ducked. Geo won his jack, North showing four, crossed to the heart king, and led another low diamond from dummy! This time South could not bring herself to duck; once the ace appeared, declarer had two discards for his spades. That brought him a 75% board.
Tislevoll found himself in an awkward spot after his partner elected to raise spades rather than bid no-trumps or the fourth suit. He was hoping his partner had the spade king instead of the diamond queen. The defenders cashed two top diamonds and switched to the club queen. Geo now decided to play for the clubs to be 4-1 in order that three no-trumps might fare less well than the spade game. He took the ace, passed the heart ten successfully, and played the spade ace, observing North’s nine. He guessed well now to cash the diamond queen discarding his club, led a trump to his queen, felling the jack, and cashed the ace and king of hearts. Now he ruffed a heart with the spade ten, and what was South to do? If she over-ruffed, West could get in and draw the trump, and his hand would be high. If she discarded declarer would lead the club jack and pitch his heart. Contract made and a 62% score.
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