In the play of a bridge hand, the wily declarer ensures that every move he makes is for the protection of his contract and not for its Jeopardy.
Therefore, we have in bidge various techniques of play that need to be followed with the utmost care to enable the declarer to sometimes go for a combination of chances, at times caring for his options in a thoughtful way and then when the tide changes in the play to keep abreast of the changing odds, at times banking on the loser-on-loser play and bringing the elimination process in vogue for a forced end play when all coups and technical gadgets fail including the one where the lead is subverted from going into the dangerous opponent and the opponent is subjected to play into the declarer's chosen options, then the last resort is hoping for the squeeze to work for which you need to visualise keycards favourably placed for the squeeze to work, keeping of course the squeeze requirement of ending opponents busy cards, rectifying the count, placing the upper hand on the victims left with a sufficient entry to it. All these are bidge gadgets but many a time a very simple move needs to be made which is often after looked by an average player in the heat of the battle. Let us illustrate by an example how declarers can slip in their play when the requirement is simple enough: Taking our illustration in a contract of 4 hearts by south, west leads the KC followed by the JC to east's AC and a club return.
The full hands are spread below: At trick 3, the declarer ruffs the club with the 5H. When he plays 2 rounds of hearts, he discovers the adverse 4-1 trump break. Take it from there. As south how should you proceed knowing you have to give up a trump trick and cannot afford to give any more trick?
On the face of it is looks simple enough doesn't it? You have 3 diamond winners with a trump in dummy to take care of the fourth diamond, which even if it is over ruffed, would still yield you your contract by 5 trumps in your hand, 3 diamonds and 2 spades totalling 10 tricks.
But do you see the snag in it that could easily be overlooked by an average player? Try playing it in the above fashion when you play the Q diamonds, east ruffs and knocks dummy's last trump out preventing you from ruffing your diamond loser in hand and thereby downing your ice cold contract.
Of course the better player would be well aware of the over all situation knowing his percentage breaks in suits that a suit with 6 cards outstanding is more likely to break 4-2 rather than 3-3. And looking to the fact that east holds 4 trumps, it is quite likely that he would be the one with fewer diamonds than west. And therefore the danger of the QD being ruffed is imminent as east holds the trumps.
The dilemma of course can be easily resolved if you know well the bidge technique of keeping the dangerous opponent stultified with no option left. Yes, you got it. The third diamond needs to be played from dummy towards the QD through east who holds the trumps. East is non-plussed. If the ruffs, he is ruffing his partner's winner. If he does not declarer scores his 10th trick. The diamond loser can be given up after declarer ruffs it in dummy to be over ruffed. If east refuses to ruff, you have your 10 tricks again in 4 diamonds + 4 harts + AK of spades. In the end its all about trump control.
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North West East South
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A863 J954 Q107 K2
743 2 J1098 AKQ65
952 J1086 43 AKQ7
KQJ3 A972 84
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