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The Good Bad Break.

So, you dread bad breaks? Sometimes, you dread them justifiably and the end result is not pretty. Yet, there are occasions when you need a bad break to make your contract.

Firstly, though, what is your choice of opening bid with the following West hand:

 

While you might later distort the length of your red suits by doing so, there seems a good case for opening 1, making it easier for your partner to give preference to the major should the opponents intervene with a black suit overcall. Normally, we would prefer to bid game in the major, especially when playing match-point Pairs, assuming our partner has equal length in the red suits, maybe even when their heart suit is slightly shorter.

It avoids this awkward sequence which occurred at at least one table:

 

The South hand is not that strong to force the bidding to the 4-level (say 4 on other occasions). On this occasion, North anticipated that their partner held 5 hearts and with somewhat unsuitable values in clubs, raised to game. They did, though, have one extremely valuable card, 6!

2 was an Intermediate Jump. How would you feel at the sight of dummy when West leads K? Would you feel worse if you knew there was a 5-0 heart break? The answer, strangely enough, is “no, you would be delighted!”

 

 With two top hearts and a spade to lose, chances do not initially look bright. Indeed, with a friendlier trump break, the contract would likely fail.

However, declarer won the K lead and played A and then ruffed a diamond low in dummy. The fall of the K confirmed a 4-2 diamond break. So, South played K and discarded their spade loser as West took their ace and with no trumps, could only try to score Q.

There was no joy for West as declarer ruffed and played a third round of diamonds, ruffing with the oh so valuable 6. East over-ruffed with K and played A and a second round of hearts which South could win in their hand and draw East’s remaining two small trumps as South’s three remaining diamonds were all winners.

Had East discarded a club instead of over-ruffing, declarer could still discard two diamonds on high clubs and ruff Q with J. Either way, South will come to 10 tricks.

Had West even one trump, they could play it when in with A and assuming East held AKxx (or that the defence could play two high trumps), South would soon have no entry to dummy and thus the defence would be able to trap South in hand with a diamond loser.

Not only is the 5-0 break a relief for South but should any North get to be declarer in 4 (perhaps where 1 opening bid  showed hearts), the initial lead of 3 rounds of hearts means that South will actually lose control when the defence forces South to ruff a spade…and cannot even make 1! Surprisingly, in view of West's Intermediate Jump, only once did 4 get doubled...and then indeed made, though not all declarers succeeded in this contract. 

A case for making the long trump hand declarer and for hoping for a 5-0 break…and that 6 in dummy! So, a bad break may yet be your salvation!

Richard Solomon

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