Phillip Alder Bridge

Monday, August 20, 2007

Do not hunt; let them find

North

	A J 5 4
	K 7
	8 6 3
	A J 7 2

West

	9 2
	10 8 5 4
	K Q 9 7
	? 6 3

East

	6 3
	J 9 6 2
	10 5 4 2
	? 5 4

South

	K Q 10 8 7
	A Q 3
	A J
	K 10 9

Dealer: North
Vulnerable: Both

South	West	North	East
		1	Pass
1	Pass	2	Pass
4NT	Pass	5	Pass
6	Pass	Pass	Pass

Opening lead:

     Jack Pomeroy said, “A communist is a person who publicly airs his dirty Lenin.”
     At the bridge table, often often you must guess which way to turn, but sometimes you can get an opponent to do your dirty work for you, whatever his political leanings.
     South was in six spades. West led the diamond king. Declarer won with his ace and drew trumps. How did South proceed from there?
     When the responder holds a very strong hand, he will make the final decision for the partnership. So he should normally start with a low-level response. Here, when North raised to two spades, South knew that his partner had spade support and a minimum opening. Six spades would be high enough.
     Declarer had 11 top tricks: five spades, three hearts, one diamond and two clubs. He also had two possible losers: one diamond and one club. At first glance, South thought that he would need to find the club queen to get home. Also, if he could find her, he might end with an overtrick.
     But if declarer misguessed the club suit, he would go down, the opponents immediately cashing the diamond queen. South realized it was silly to rely on a finesse guess.
     Instead, after drawing trumps, he took his three heart tricks, discarding a diamond from the board. Then he led his diamond jack. West won with his queen, but what could he do next?
     If West led a club, he would find the queen for declarer. And if he returned a heart or a diamond, South would ruff on the board and sluff a club from his hand. He had Trotskyed to 12 tricks.