Better Bridge in Barry County
By
Gerald Stein
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North
♠ 8 7
♥ A J
♦ 10 7 4 2
♣ K Q 10 4 2
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West
♠ A Q 5 3
♥ 8 2
♦ 9 5
♣ J 8 7 5 3
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East
♠ 9 6 2
♥ K Q 10 9 6 4 3
♦ K 8
♣ 6
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South
♠ K J 10 4
♥ 7 5
♦ A Q J 6 3
♣ A 9
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Dealer:
Vulnerable:
Lead:
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East
East/West
8♥
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North
5♣
Pass
Pass
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East
3♥
Pass
Pass
Pass
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South
Dbl (1)
Pass
5♦
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West
Pass
Dbl (2)
Pass
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(1) Takeout
Double
(2) Penalty
Double
Today’s column has some interesting bidding as well
as an example of using an end play near the end of the hand. Let’s take a look
at the bidding first. As the opener, East had a solid heart suit with seven hearts
and three of the top five honors and not a lot of points. Most of East’s points
are in the heart suit where they should be, and this proved to be an excellent
disruptive bid by East bidding 3♥.
South, sitting with a shortage in hearts as well as
a shortage in clubs, chose a takeout double, telling partner North to bid her
best suit. While South is stretching the takeout bid a bit, she still has a
chance to bid the diamonds and/or the spades. South for a takeout double should
be short only in the bid suit of hearts and not short in another suit. That
could have caused partnership problems.
West passed the takeout double, and North soared to
5♣ with ten high card points and a decent five-card club suit. East passed as
did South, but West with five clubs to the J♣ elected to broadcast her hand to
those listening at the table and pulled out the double card. This gave a lot of
information to the North/South team, and South, after a pass from North and
East, pulled the 5♦ card out of the bidding box
and bid 5♦, hopefully escaping from the penalty double.
All passed, and the contract was placed at 5♦ in
the South.
West chose the 8♥ as
her lead, the top of a doubleton and her partner’s bid suit, and North duly
placed her hand down on the table. South thanked her favorite partner as always
and looked to see how she could make a 5♦
contract. The diamonds looked strong, a nice A♥
would help, and the clubs could be useful, especially since West had told
everyone where all of the clubs were. Listening to the bidding is a huge
advantage in bridge.
With her plan in place, South called for the A♥ and all followed. On the board, South called for the
10♦ intending to finesse if necessary, but East
covered the honor with the K♦, and South won
with the A♦. A play of the Q♦ next pulled the remaining trumps from West and East.
South next approached the club suit, playing from the
short side and unblocking her A♣. She had figured that West had five clubs for
her double and East with an opening preemptive bid had to be short somewhere.
All played a club to the A♣, and next South led the 9♣ winning that trick by
letting it ride through the dummy. East discarded a heart.
A small diamond from her hand and winning on the
board put South in a position to play the K♣, the Q♣, pitching first the heart
loser in her hand, then a small spade loser. Putting West on lead was South’s
next move, the beginning of an end play where South would give up a loser card that
she needed to lose anyway and put West in a position of having to lead to South
in last position. South chose the 7♠ from the board, covered by East with the 9♠,
and South covered that card with her own 10♠. West won the trick with the Q♠,
and stuck for a lead, led the A♠, setting up the K♠ in the South hand. South
claimed the rest of the tricks making 5♦.
Thinking back to last week’s column and the review
of Audrey Grant’s new book on end plays, it is easy to see that this technique of
the end play is one to rely on more often in the New Year. Here is a recap of the
end play as executed by South: South cleared out the trump suit first, played
all of the winning clubs, clearing away the heart loser and one spade loser in
her hand, and then she exited near the end of the hand with a losing spade card
from the dummy. South played it that way so that West would have to win the
spade trick and would have to lead back to the good spade in the South hand.
Listening to
the bidding helped South on this hand as there would have been a surprise
indeed for North playing in a 5♣ contract if West had passed smoothly instead
of doubling for penalty. South with an opportunity to find another fit chose
the diamond suit and brought home a game contract and 400 points for the
North/South team.
Several other partnerships chose a different route
after the takeout double. Two, in fact, passed the takeout double by South and
turned it into a penalty double of 3♥. The
contract was set one trick for -200 points for the East/West team, but this
North/South team did a better job with the same cards. Happy bridge playing in
2014!
Gerald Stein
December 5, 2013
Number of words: 950
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