Better Bridge in Barry County June 27 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  Q 7    ♥  K    ♦  K Q J 10 8   ♣  Q J 10 9 6
West ♠  10 6 4 3 ♥  8 5 4 3 2 ♦  9 5 4 2   ♣  ---		East ♠  K 9 8 ♥  A J 10 6 ♦  7 6 3 ♣  K 4 3
	South ♠  A J 5 2 ♥  Q 9 7 ♦  A ♣  A 8 7 5 2

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East North/South 3♠

 

North   3♥ 6♣	East Pass Pass	South 1♣ 5♣	West Pass Pass

In a recent online duplicate bridge tournament, this hand caused some problems for a number of the tables who played it. Bidding and making a slam are two different things. Sometimes bidding is the key, and sometimes the play of the hand is the key. When both work together, the results can be a top board and a top score. Let’s see what happened with today’s hand.

South opened 1♣ with five clubs and 15 high-card points. Partner North used a splinter bid of 3♥ to show that he was short in hearts and had good support for clubs. With fifteen high-card points, North was certainly encouraging South to bid on. When South leaped to game, North pushed on to a small slam in clubs. Now to make that bid is the rest of the column.

West with a pathetic-looking hand did not have much of a lead although to her credit, she did listen to the bidding and knew that leading a heart when North had announced to the table that he was short in hearts did not make good sense. As a result, West chose the other major and led the fourth down, the 3♠. South played the Q♠ from the dummy, East covered with the K♠, and South won the trick with the A♠. So much for trick one.

South next unblocked the diamond suit by playing the A♦ from his hand. Playing the good J♠ next cleared the spades in the dummy. The 2♠ was led next from South’s hand, and here South played high from the trumps in the dummy, playing the Q♣. Leading the J♣ came next, and East played low. South played low, and the trick held. South was in the right spot to lead again from the dummy with the 10♣, and again East played low. On the third lead of trumps, with the 9♣, East was forced to cough up the K♣, and South played the A♣ winning. The 5♠ from the South hand was led next and was trumped on the board with the last club there, the 6♣. From there it was easy. South played the top diamonds starting with the K♦, the Q♦, and the J♦. South was able to pitch all of the losing hearts, making and claiming all thirteen tricks for a top board on this hand.

All in all, this hand was played a total of 24 times. Only three of the 24 made the top score of all thirteen tricks with a 1390 score. Four of the 24 made a small slam taking twelve tricks for a score of 1370. What are the takeaways from today’s hand? Basically, the best things that a partnership can achieve together are good communication and trust. In today’s hand, South listened to his partner’s bid, and he bid sensibly reaching for a game in a minor suit. North put the partnership into a slam position, and it resulted in an excellent score for the North/South team. Well done, North and South.

 

Gerald Stein

June 21, 2013

Number of words: 651

 

Bridge Notes: By the way, did you notice that if West leads a heart at trick one, the East/West team will win the first trick and limit North/South to twelve tricks instead of thirteen? Bridge is such a fun game!