Better Bridge in Barry County
By
Gerald Stein
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North
♠ 9 8 7
♥ 3
♦ J 7 3
♣ K Q 7 5 3 2
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West
♠ Q J
♥ K 10 6
♦ A K 9
♣ J 9 8 6 4
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East
♠ 10 5 4
♥ Q 8 7 5 2
♦ Q 10 8 4
♣ 10
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South
♠ A K 6 3 2
♥ A J 9 4
♦ 6 5 2
♣ A
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Dealer:
Vulnerable:
Lead:
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North
East/West
K♦
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North
Pass
2♠
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East
Pass
Pass
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South
1♠
Pass
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West
Pass
Pass
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Kenny Rogers’
“The Gambler” offers good advice not only for poker players but also for bridge
players with his country western hit song. “You’ve got to know when to hold’em…Know
when to fold’em…Know when to walk away.” Today’s South declarer heeded those
words and walked away with a 2♠ contract.
North as dealer passed with six high card points and
not much else. East also passed with an equally weak hand. South in third
position had a medium hand with sixteen high card points but those diamonds
looked precarious. Still with a five card major and a good suit in spades,
South confidently bid 1♠. West with fourteen high card points did not have much
to overcall after the 1♠ opening bid. West might have chosen a take out double,
but being vulnerable and with her pretty ratty-looking clubs, West passed also.
North with three spades and the minimum six high
card points raised the bid to 2♠. After East passed, South with a little bit of
extra strength no doubt considered raising the bid to 3♠ as an invitational
bid. Wisely, however, South chose to reconsider the bidding done around the
table. With North as a passed hand, and everyone else passing, South no doubt
drew the inference that high card points were distributed somewhat equally
around the table. He gathered that North had just enough to answer and nothing
more to say. South wisely passed and prepared to play the contract at 2♠ when
all passed.
When West led the K♦
and North placed her hand down on the table, South was glad that he had passed
instead of inviting higher in spades. With twenty-two points between North and
South, South knew that the other 18 high card points would be shared with the
East/West pair. With no hope in diamonds, South was convinced that 2♠ was not
too high, and not too low, but just right.
Of course, West won the first two tricks with the A♦ and the K♦, and
continued with a diamond to East’s Q♦. A shift
of the singleton club in the East hand was won by South for their first trick.
Drawing just two rounds of trump was South’s next move, and East would
eventually win the 10♠ trump trick. South played the A♥,
and trumped a heart loser with the 9♠. Hoping to use the K♣ to ditch another of
his heart losers was in vain as East used the 10♠ to thwart that idea. South
discarded a heart anyway, essentially playing a loser on a loser. So all was
not lost on that play for South. He was destined to lose the spade trump anyway
as well as a heart trick What could be better for South than to make two losers
go away on the same trick?
East would take the Q♥
next for East/West’s fifth trick. South would win the final three tricks with
the three remaining trumps in his hand, taking eight tricks altogether and
making the 2♠ contract. So how well did South do on this hand by stopping and
holding at a 2♠ contract? South did well as only two South declarers showed
enough restraint to hold at 2♠. The other 16 players all moved upward in their
bidding and downward in their scores, all being set by the East/West pairs.
For their good efforts, the two successful South
declarers earned a 96.7% success rate for their team. The other sixteen scored
poorly for reaching for extras. They failed to heed when the Gambler says, “Know
when to hold’em.
Gerald Stein
November 1, 2014
Number of words: 701
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