Bridge is a mentally exhilarating game. Challenging at times, it gives immense satisfaction at success and a painful memory on failure. Let us start with a simple illustration, which is one of the most common contracts in Bridge we find our self in - a contract of 4S bid as under on the following NS hands:
The bidding:
The opening lead from west is AC followed by a low club on which south tries the QC taken by the KC from east who now shifts to a trump. Plays yourself in the south seat and try to make this relatively easy 4S contract if you can.
As you view the insipid dummy you are not happy, for holding such a power house of a hand containing 9 solid tricks, you still need to fish for the 10th trick to fulfil your contract of 4S. With dummy not helping a bit, how do you go about it? This is a common occurrence at Bridge when one holds a strong hand but his partner is unable to provide any help. Well, still has a die-hard at Bridge, one should never give up but strive to find the silver lining in the dark clouds. Let us see what options we have for the declarer. One is of course the fall of the QH either singleton or doubleton. But this happening has little odds for with 7 outstanding cards the percentage break would be as even as possible, ie 4-3 with the queen not likely to fall. So where does that leave the declarer? Yes there is one slim extra chance that can take advantage of dummy's trump length. The only logical inference left is to hope for a partial elimination by exiting now in diamonds.
There you have it - the luck element with east holding not only both diamonds honours as well as holding the QH with no more spades. Who says luck plays no part in competitive Bridge. End played, east can either run a heart to dummy's Jack or play a diamond to give a ruff and discard. But would luck save this contract of 4S by south in the next illustration on the following hand:
The opening lead is 3C from west. South tries JC taken by the AC from east. Back comes a club to give south the 9th trick as he already has 6 trump tricks along with the 2 red aces. In this hand let me put you in a better position by placing you in a more informative position by telling you that both kings are not on with the finesses destined to failure. Is there any recourse that you can think of? In such situations a better guideline to remember is that if you are going to endplay east somehow to get the 10th trick, it is best to start with a suit in, which you have a doubleton to keep a little more control over whosoever will be on lead. Got it? After drawing trumps, start with 4H. East's holding was 8 7, K J 9, K J 9 2, A 10 8 5. If west plays low your worries are over for east would get stuck. But if west plays 10H, win with the ace, cross to hand with a trump and another heart covering west's card. East can win and exit with his only safe card- another heart. If this is a high one, discard a diamond; if low, ruff and play low diamond hoping east holds what he actually held- K J 10. In actual play west inserted 10H. Declarer won with the ace on which east desperately threw the JH to escape the end play. But declarer crossed to hand with a trump and led another heart that went to the QH in dummy taken by KH from east who now led the 9H that was still high enough for south to discard and claim, leaving east endplayed on lead with the Hangman's Rope around his neck.
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North South North South
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7 4 A K Q J 9 5 2 J 10 5 4 3 A K Q 9 6 2
J 5 2 A K 8 A Q 6 4 2
J 4 Q 8 A Q 6 5 4 3
Q 10 8 6 3 7 K J9 4
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S W N E
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2S (Strong) P 2NT (Neg.) P
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4S ALL PASS
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