Bridge success rests on one vital actor - your vision and comprehension of how the opponents' cards lie and what should be their favourable distribution that can enable you to succeed in an otherwise taxing hand like the one NS face in our illustration for today:
The bidding:
The opening lead from west is the JD and as you view the dummy as south, you are a little disappointed with partner's optimistic bid of 3H with should have had the expected 16 HCPs minimum. But here the 15 HCPs were in any case covered by the spade singleton. Moreover, being vulnerable, it is always good Bridge tactics to bid on when vulnerable as you stand to gain more than lose by not bidding on.
Place yourself in the south seat and try to solve this problem hand. To start with, when you count your losers and winners you can see a spade loser, a diamond loser, a club if the finesse of the QC fails and of course a heart loser if the trumps don't break even 2-2. Well as you cover the JD hopefully with dummy's QD, you find east hopping in with the KD to force your AD. A friendly club division can give you extra chances as would a successful club finesse. But still the hand requires careful timing as far as the trump extraction is concerned. At this point, how do you proceed? As south, do you go for the trump extraction or delay it? Well, it is a sound principle of play that when it poses the problem, the first priority should be to establish the side suit, if any. Being short of entries in hand, your first priority should be the club finesse. If it loses, you need the trumps to break even. So when you take the club finesse, it holds. Now what? What should be your next move? Since you can afford the play of one trump high honour, you make that move as both opponents follow low. Taking a deep breath you try the AC and the king of clubs drops on your left. Now you need to establish the clubs for the making of your contract. So you play on. The low club brings 10C from your RHO. What next? Has the LHO false carded with KC while holding KJX? You have no choice but to assume the drop of KC to be an honest card. So it is time to think. If you ruff, you are likely to be over ruffed with a spade cashed and diamond given to RHO for a fourth club return putting you back on square one with the same threat of LHO over ruffing you again with perhaps the QS. That would sink your contract. So the best recourse here is to pitch a losing diamond as a loser on loser on the third club. Of course west blanks out. A diamond is returned which you ruff. Here lies another point of timing you play. Can you draw the second trump now? But what if trumps turn out to be 3-1, you would feel quite sorry even if you are able to ruff a club to establish dummy's 5th club. Do you see why? For then you would have to play a spade, which the opponent with the master trump - QH could win and cash leaving dummy stranded with a diamond loser.
So the right move here is to establish communication with dummy first by playing a spade immediately. Even if RHO wins with the 10 and pumps dummy with the KS, no doubt it would be bothersome as far as trumps are concerned but even at this point can the second trump be played now? I am afraid not, for at trick 8 this is the position of the north south hands:-
Suppose on KH, LHO shows out. You ruff a club but you have no back entry to hand with the threat of over ruff looming. So what is the right play here? Yes, lead dummy's 4th club immediately and ruff with the JH for 100% safety. After winning this trick lead to KH. Even if JH is over ruffed, the defense cannot hurt you. Delaying trump play was the key to success. Those who go for early trump play thoughtlessly forget that haste makes waste.
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North South
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5 J 9 4 2
A K 10 5 J 7 6 4 2
Q 5 3 A 7
A Q 9 6 2 5 3
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N E S W
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1C P 1H 1S
3H P 4H All Pass
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North South
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- J 9
K 10 J 7 6
5 -
9 6 -
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