Brazilian Swing

As reported by Barry Rigal, the two Brazilian pairs combined nicely to pick up 5 IMPs on this deal from their Round 2 match with France in the Open series.

Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul.
	ª A Q © Q J 5 ¨ A J § J 8 6 5 4 2
ª 8 5 4 © A 10 6 4 3 ¨ K 8 7 2 § 7		ª K J 9 © 9 ¨ Q 10 9 6 3 § A Q 9 3
	ª 10 7 6 3 2 © K 8 7 2 ¨ 5 4 § K 10

West	North	East	South
Villas Boas	Multon	Chagas	Quantin
	1NT	Pass	2©
Dble	Pass	Pass	2ª
All Pass

Villas Boas led his singleton club to the ace and Gabriel Chagas found a smart play. He knew that declarer had five spades, one of the top heart honours and the club king, therefore Villas Boas had the king of diamonds. In that case there was no hurry to give him his club ruff. Chagas therefore continued with a diamond to the king and ace.
Quantin did his best by leading the ace then queen of spades, but Chagas gave his partner the club ruff and now repeated diamond leads led to two down for -100.

Diego Brenner also played 2ª as South on a club lead. Here, East won and switched to his heart to the ace. A heart ruff was followed by a club ruff but now, after another heart ruff, the third round of clubs achieved nothing as declarer could ruff high and play a trump to the ace, dropping the king. Brenner next drew the last trump with the queen, ruffed out the queen of clubs and crossed to the ¨A to cash a club for a diamond pitch; +110 and 5 IMPs to Brazil.

Had East switched to a diamond instead of playing the third club, that would have knocked out the ¨A. Declarer could have dropped the ªK next but would no longer have had the communications to both establish and cash the clubs, so would have been one down.

Rhapsody on a Theme of Duboin

One of several short tunes that are based on the same simple tune, but are different from it and from the others.
by Mark Horton

You will readily recall this deal from Round 2, which has already appeared in the Bulletin.

Board 7. Dealer South. All Vul.
	ª - © Q J 10 3 2 ¨ Q 7 5 4 2 § K 5 3
ª J 10 9 7 6 4 3 © 6 ¨ 9 3 § A J 10		ª A Q 5 © K 8 7 ¨ A K § 9 8 6 4 2
	ª K 8 2 © A 9 5 4 ¨ J 10 8 6 § Q 7

If the defenders fail to switch to clubs in time East/West will make Four Spades, but the interesting question is how should declarer play if North starts with the queen of hearts and then plays a second heart?

After ruffing and playing a spade you see North discard so it is clear to take the ace. On the actual layout the club honours are split, so there is no problem, but suppose the full deal looks like this:

	ª - © Q J 10 3 2 ¨ Q 7 5 4 2 § K Q 3
ª J 10 9 7 6 4 3 © 6 ¨ 9 3 § A J 10		ª A Q 5 © K 8 7 ¨ A K § 9 8 6 4 2
	ª K 8 2 © A 9 5 4 ¨ J 10 8 6 § 7

Now the winning line, after the ace of spades, is to ruff a third heart, cash the top diamonds and with the red suits out of the way play a club to the ten. North can win, but must now play into your tenace or give a ruff and discard.

That line was adopted by at least one player in the Open series, who came to tell me over breakfast.
However, that is not the end of the story, for if you go back to the original deal, you will see that if declarer adopts this line he can be thwarted by an alert South who can go up with the queen of clubs, thereby ensuring that he sets up a potential ruff to defeat the contract.

So, as you might have expected, the original Italian version was superior to the variation!