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Zia's
Question and Solution for Week 12
'Whoever
said that bridge is an easy game must have been the underbidder
of the century. There are occasions, though, when it may be best
to adopt the simple approach.'
- ZIA
East
deals and EW are vulnerable. Zia is South, playing in a high-level
tournament against first-class opponents.
The
bidding is as follows:
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West
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North
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East
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South
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1
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1
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Pass
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1NT
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Pass
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4
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Pass
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Pass
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Pass
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Zia
might have overcalled 4
on the first round, but chooses the slower approach starting with
1. EW are playing negative
doubles, so West's pass shows less than 6 high card points with
four or more hearts or a spade stack. When Zia's partner shows some
life with 1NT, Zia decides to bid game. The
final contract is 4.
West
leads  K and dummy goes
down. Zia sees that dummy is not too suitable:
North
plays 4, while East
overtakes West's K opening
lead with A. Zia discards
2. East switches to
Q. Zia wins with A,
West following with 3
and North with 4.
What
card would Zia play next?
Zia's
Solution
The
full deal is as shown:
Zia's answer is  3
or
5.
When
Zia is in a contract which seems unlikely to make, it becomes necessary
to make certain assumptions. Here, the spade suit must divide 2-2,
or Zia will lose a spade, two hearts and at least one club. Also,
Zia must avoid the loss of more than one club trick and one more
heart.
On
the bidding, East really must have K
once West has shown up on the opening lead with KQ.
Not so much because East needs K
for an opening bid but if West had K
or even J in addition
to KQ, he would have
made a negative double of 1.
It looks at first as though it might be possible to endplay East
to lead a minor suit but there is no way to do that in practice.
If Zia runs spades, West will give count in diamonds, and East will
know that he can discard that suit and keep enough clubs and hearts
to defeat Zia.
Zia's
best chance, then, is that East's K
is doubleton. Zia must play for this but the timing needs care.
If Zia draws trumps before ducking a club, the defenders will have
three hearts and a club to cash. And if Zia plays A
followed by a small club, ducking in dummy, before drawing trumps,
East will put his partner in with Q
and receive a club ruff.
Ducking
a club before playing trumps enables Zia to keep control of the
hand. Whatever the opponents counter, Zia can soon draw the outstanding
trumps. Later, after the A
has dropped the king, Zia can gain entry to dummy with Q
and then cash the A
for his tenth trick.
'Maybe
bridge is an easy game after all.'
Final
Result: NS win 10 tricks for +420
Back
Conceived
and sponsored by Orbis Investment Management Limited. To learn about
the award winning Orbis Funds, visit www.orbis.bm.
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