Find the Mistake
Last month I promised you we would have some fun this season. To that end, I am using some ideas which come from a book given to me by my good friend, Clara Sinrich of Turnberry. This book, Bridge Hands for the Connoisseur, has some very interesting hands, but because of copyright laws, I can’t reproduce them exactly. I can, however, discuss concepts suggested by the hands. By the way, the book was written in 1947, but the concepts are just as valid today as they were then.
One of the chapters is called “Find the Mistakes.” Here’s a hand, not the hand from the book, but a hand with similar attributes.
South is the dealer. East/West is Vulnerable.
|
North |
||
| West ♠ A J 6 ♥ 5 ♦ J 10 9 7 ♣ Q J 9 6 2 |
East ♠ K 10 9 5 2 ♥ 8 6 4 2 ♦ Q ♣ K 10 7 |
|
| South ♠Q 8 4 3 ♥ A 9 7 3 ♦ 6 5 ♣ A 4 3 |
The bidding goes as follows:
| South | West | North | East |
| Pass | Pass | 1♦ | Pass |
| 1♥ | Pass | 4♥ | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
West leads the♣Q. South wins and draws 2 rounds of trump. On the second round, West plays a club. Declarer then tries♦A winning and then a safety play of a low diamond. West wins and now plays♣, forcing declarer to trump. This leaves declarer without a second entry to his established diamonds, so he must go down. What did the declarer do wrong???????
South should not touch the trump at all. He needs to play♦A and then the♦K. When East trumps, he leaves himself with only 3 trump. No matter what East does, Declarer can now trump 2 more diamonds, establishing the remaining 2 diamonds for spade discards. Do you see how this works?
When East trumps, he will take his good club and give his partner a spade trick. What can West do at this point? His best play is to make Declarer trump by leading either a club or a spade. In either case, declarer trumps and plays a diamond. He trumps the diamond and plays a heart to his Ace reducing both himself and East to 2 trumps each. He then trumps another diamond forcing West to give up his last diamond. Finally, he draws both of East’s trumps with his 2 top trump and discards his remaining spades on the good diamonds.
