Unfortunate Squeeze

By Vishy Viswanathan

There were many possibilities on this deal from the first session of the semi final of the Open Pairs, the scores ranging from N/S +140 to E/W +1350. Most E/W pairs who bid 3NT were given an easy ride as North led a spade, giving declarer a ninth trick at once.

One of the Indian pairs produced quite a story:

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

West	North	East	South
	Prabhaker		Bakaramurthy
1¨	1ª	Dble*	2ª
3NT	All Pass

Prabhaker showed excellent judgement in leading the ace of hearts (As an aside for our cricket loving readers we should point out that that there was a Prabhaker who was a fine opening bowler for India, so you could expect first class opening leads from a bridge player with the same name) and when partner played an encouraging three he continued the suit, the defenders cashing four tricks in the suit ending up in South's hand as declarer discarded three diamonds. At this stage declarer appears to have no chance for a ninth trick, but while there's life there's hope and when South switched to the jack of spades declarer was not slow to take his chance.

He won with the ace and played five rounds of clubs, throwing the seven and queen of spades from his hand. North was squeezed in the pointed suits.

Hard luck on North but it was difficult for South to anticipate the position at trick five.
Another Indian pair, Subash Gupta and Rajesh Dalal reached an excellent contract of Five Clubs which can only be beaten by an underlead of the ace of hearts followed by a spade switch by South.

(Not absolutely true, as Declarer can cover South's spade, win the next spade and then cross ruff.)

No Escape

Pablo Lambardi of Argentina is always a good source of hands for me; this one comes from the Open Pairs Qualifying Session 3.

Board 24. Dealer West. None Vul.
	ª Q 8 5 © J 5 4 ¨ 4 3 § Q 9 8 4 2
ª 10 7 6 3 © K 9 ¨ A J 9 5 § K J 3		ª A J © Q 8 6 ¨ K Q 10 8 6 § A 10 5
	ª K 9 4 2 © A 10 7 3 2 ¨ 7 2 § 7 6

Pablo was West in the normal contract of 3NT. He received a club lead which ran to his jack, and cashed five rounds of diamonds. South threw one spade and two hearts, and North one club and two hearts. Now Pablo played a heart to his king followed by the two club winners. In the ending, South had ªK9 ©A10 and North ªQ85 §Q. A spade to the ace left the defenders with no escape. If South did not unblock the king, he would be thrown in with it have to give dummy a trick with the ©Q. So South ditched the ªK, but now the ªJ endplayed North, who could win and cash the §Q but then had to give the last trick to the ten of spades; eleven tricks for +460.

It seems that North could have done better by keeping an extra heart instead of either the third spade or the club winner.