Stories From The Championship

Type L for Loser - by Barry Rigal

The Swiss Plate was an event held for those who had failed to make it through to the round of 64. A suggestion that the masterpoint awards be negative (you keep playing until you win a match, with negative awards being doubled for each successive loss) was resoundingly defeated.

This board threw up problems for the people who use obvious shift as well as those who use a more standard set of signals. If you want to test yourself, you hold the South cards, and cover up the East and North cards - West is dummy.

Board 1. Dealer North. N/S Vul.
	♠ Q 9 8 4 3 ♥ 9 8 ♦ Q 10 3 ♣ 8 7 4
♠ 7 ♥ Q 10 7 6 3 ♦ A 8 5 ♣ Q J 9 6		♠ K J 5 ♥ A K 5 4 2 ♦ 7 4 2 ♣ 5 3
	♠ A 10 6 2 ♥ J ♦ K J 9 6 ♣ A K 10 2

West	North	East	South
	Pass	1♥	Dble
Rdbl	1♠	Pass	2♠
4♥	All Pass

At our table South, a many-time world champion led a top club, and could not decide whether to play a spade or a diamond, so he compromised by shifting to a trump instead. That led to an easy 420.

In the other room (where North had never bid spades) our teammates led a top club, and North contributed the ♣7 in tempo - the partnership agreement being that the ♣4 would be encouragement and the ♣8 would request a shift to a spade. Now South had a real problem. He solved it by playing a diamond and duly defeated the contract. Another option on defence might have been to cash the ♠A (particularly on an auction where partner has shown some signs of life in spades during the auction - making the chance declarer has the ♠K Q a little smaller). Now since dummy has only one spade, attitude on the ♠A is irrelevant - this should be a suit preference position. If partner has the doubleton club he plays low, if the ♦Q he follows high.

Missed Strip - by Matthew Granovetter

Dealer East. None Vul.
	♠ A 9 5 ♥ A 7 6 5 ♦ Q J ♣ A 6 5 4
♠ 10 7 3 ♥ 9 2 ♦ 4 3 2 ♣ Q J 10 9 8		♠ J 8 6 4 ♥ K Q 10 ♦ A 10 9 6 5 ♣ 3
	♠ K Q 2 ♥ J 8 4 3 ♦ K 8 7 ♣ K 7 2

West	North	East	South
		1♦	Dbl
Pass	2♦	Pass	2♥
Pass	4♥	All Pass

Opening led: ♣Q.

If you play West for length in clubs, you should play East for three trumps to the K-Q. Now you have a strip and endplay.

Win the club in dummy and lead the ♦Q followed by the ♦J if East holds up his ace. Win the diamond or spade return and cash the ♥A to see if the king or queen drops on your right. It doesn't. So now come to your hand in spades, cash the ♦K and continue with the spades.

Then lead a club toward your king, in case East holds two of them. He can't ruff in productively if you lead the suit from dummy. Finally, lead a trump.

East must give you a ruff sluff.

At one table, declarer made five! Brad Moss was East and when declarer stripped the hand and led to the ♥A, Brad desperately played the queen under the ace and then followed with the 10 on the second round, hoping his partner held the doubleton jack. Declarer won the jack and and endplayed Brad for the overtrick! Brad was not upset – he had simply converted a 10% score to a complete zero.

Bridge Today Digest Daily is edited by Pamela and Matthew Granovetter.

Defend like an Expert

Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul.
	♠ 10 9 3 2 ♥ A ♦ K 9 4 2 ♣ K 5 4 2
♠ 6 5 ♥ K J 9 5 4 3 2 ♦ 10 8 5 ♣ 9		♠ Q J 8 7 4 ♥ 8 7 ♦ Q J ♣ A 10 7 6
	♠ A K ♥ Q 10 6 ♦ A 7 6 3 ♣ Q J 8 3

Everybody knows that a true expert would rather play for a squeeze than take a finesse; but it is a less well-known fact that the REAL expert would always lead some suit other than his own - fourth highest from your longest and strongest is so vieux jeu.

That might explain why at both tables in the match between Hecht-Johansen and Grenthe West elected to lead a spade rather than a heart against 3NT.

Where HC Nielsen was on lead the spade lead went round to declarer's king as his partner encouraged. Now a club to the king scored the trick and declarer played three rounds of diamonds, letting Nielsen back on lead. When East, Lars Blakset, discarded a heart, Nielsen played back a second spade, and declarer had only eight tricks when much to his surprise the club ace turned up in Blakset's hand.

What would have happened had the ♣A not been ducked? Well in the other room they discovered that. After East won his ♣A and shifted to a heart, declarer played three rounds of diamonds, keeping East off play, and had his contract comfortably enough.

Of course the palookas would examine the deal and point out that a boring heart lead takes the game down three… But where would be the fun in that?