Better Bridge in Barry County July 5 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North ♠ A6 ♥ AK52 ♦ AQJ9 ♣ AQ6
West ♠ Q3 ♥ Q1043 ♦ 1085432 ♣ 5		East ♠ 9852 ♥ 6 ♦ 76 ♣ K109832
	South ♠ KJ1074 ♥ J987 ♦ K ♣ J74

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

West None 7D

North 2C 6NT	East Pass Pass	South 2S Pass	West Pass Pass Pass

In today’s column, the North-South pair used a number of bridge components that helped to get them to the coveted contract of Six No Trump. Good bidding by North and South, a good Plan by North, and good Play of the Hand by North brought home the slam contract.

North’s first bid of 2♣ was a telling bid. “Partner,” said North, “because we play a Strong Two Club bid in Standard American, and we leave Two Diamonds, Two Hearts, and Two Spades for the Weak Two Bids, you know that I have in my hand 22 or more high card points, and I am forcing you to bid.”

South has a ready answer: “Yes, Partner, I know what you are telling me; you have 22 plus points and you want me to bid. My normal bid on such a hand from you would be 2♦, an artificial bid that says nothing about diamonds, but is most commonly known as a waiting bid. I would be waiting for you to describe your hand. This time, however, happily I have nine high card points and a good five-card major suit to tell you about. I bid 2♠.”

North is delighted to hear from his partner South, and without hesitation, North bids Six No Trump. The contract is set, and North is the declarer with most of the points in the closed hand. Looking at his cards, North sees 24 high card points, while South has nine high card points for a total of 33, a recognized number of points needed for a small slam. The seven outstanding points in the East-West hands are divided, but North does not yet know where everything is.

The lead from East is the 7♦, the top of a doubleton, signaling her partner West that she has only two diamonds. Would the singleton 6♥ have been a better lead? Think about that for a minute.

The dummy comes down, and North duly thanks his partner for the promised cards in her bid. North takes a moment to make his plan: his objective is 12 of the 13 tricks. He may lose only one trick to the opponents. His first plan is to count all of his winners. With the diamond lead, he counts four diamond winners; he has two heart winners; he has two spade winners; and he has one club winner for a total of nine certain winners. He will have to develop or promote three more winners to make his contract. South’s spade suit looks like the best possible source of three additional tricks.

North, still making his plan, has to look further at the spade suit. With seven spades and length in the spade suit in the dummy, it looks to be a better choice than trying to get two extra tricks out of the hearts. With that thought settled, North wonders about the split of the spade suit: with six spades out against him, how will the spades split? He knows that typically the spades will split 4-2 with an even number of cards held by the opponents. Going for the Q♠ to drop would be a long shot; yet it might bring home all 13 tricks if it worked. The Safety Play, however, will assure the contract.

What is the Safety Play that North has in mind? After winning the opening diamond lead, North knows that to set up the spades that he will have to hope that West has the Q♠ and that when he leads the J♠ from the dummy that West will automatically cover the honor with an honor, putting the Q♠ on the J♠. If, however, West plays low smoothly, then North will play his A♠, saving the 6♠ as an entry. North has no other established entries to the dummy hand except the K♠. Either way, North’s main hope to make the contract is to get the Q♠ to cover the J♠ or to drop the Q♠ on the K♠. It will do North no good to finesse the Q♠ with the J♠. It will lose to the singleton Queen, and North will not make the contract for their team because he will be unable to get back to the dummy to use the three remaining good spades.

As it turns out, some defenders covered the J♠ and made life easy for North, and he was able to take five spade tricks as planned. However, some defenders played low smoothly on the J♠ and North was forced to take the trick with his A♠ Now he must go for the Q♠ to drop on the K♠, and it does. After taking the 10♠, North executes an end play by leading one of his two remaining spades. West wins, but then is end-played. He must lead away from the K♣, and this lets North use the J♣ as a new entry winning the trick and then playing the 4^th spade winner. Now instead of five spade winners, North has only four, but he has a new winner in the club suit. The results are still the same. The contract makes either way.

Once the spade dilemma has been solved, the rest is elementary with five or four spade tricks, two heart tricks, four diamond tricks, and one or two club trick for 12 tricks and the small slam contract. Well done, North and South, on bidding, planning, and playing the contract at Six No Trump.

Today’s bridge question: On today’s hand, 13 tricks can be won by the North player. Using the five spades and four diamonds as known winners, where does the extra trick come from to make Seven No Trump?

Gerald Stein

June 20 2012

Number of words: 1017