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BUT THEY BID HEARTS!

Bridge is full of good pieces of advice … and we know that sometimes we find reasons to break the advice. However, such tips are there for a purpose. At least one player paid the price when they did not follow a very handy piece of advice on the following recent deal:

 

The Problem

North opened the bidding with a pre-empt, a 7 card suit, in the 6-10 high card point range. Your partner made a take-out double and South decided to be a nuisance by raising to 4. Since South was a passed hand, it was very unlikely that North-South could make 4. Your problem was whether you could make game E/W. If “yes”, then you want to bid 5. If “no”, then you want to defend 4, perhaps doubled.

It’s a hard decision but let’s say you did bid 5 which was passed out. North led the 4. Over to you now. “Plan the play”.

Dummy looked quite reasonable. No more than one loser in hearts, none in spades and at worst one in each minor. Well, if you lost three tricks, that’s one down. No good! Bad decision. You can hardly blame your partner this time (not that you ever would!). So, come on, they are still waiting for you to play to trick one. Our declarer could have done better. They failed by two tricks! Hopefully, you did better and were writing down +600.

The Play

If you played low at trick one, you would soon regret that decision as these were the four hands:

 

The good piece of advice is that when a pre-emptor does not lead their own suit against a suit contract, then they are leading a singleton.

Only three losers in 5 but down 2!

Our West played low and lost to the K. Back came a diamond for North to ruff and cash the K. There was still a trump to lose…down 2.

If West had followed the guideline, they would have risen with the A because with the AQJ between the two hands, they would still only lose one diamond.

Time, though, to break another piece of advice. The advice is that normally when you have 10 cards in a suit and are missing the king, you should take a first round finesse.

There are three reasons here not to follow that advice:

1. You think North has a singleton diamond. Say you took the club finesse and lost to the singleton king, North would still get a diamond ruff….a horrible thought!
2. South is more likely to hold the K because North pre-empted (not a certainty but more likely).
3. You have a very legitimate line to make as long as South has at least one club.

So, win the A and play the A (if the king drops, you can make an overtrick!). If no king appears, play three rounds of spades discarding your heart on the third round. Remember, North has a singleton diamond. Surely they have at least two spades!

happiness  not

Thus,above, your only losers are the K and K. +600. Bet now you are glad you bid 5 . The best you can achieve from 4x is two down, + 500. (Shh, luckily they did not lead a heart as 5 has then to be one down.)

So, one good piece of advice to follow…and another to ignore.Such a logical game is Bridge!

Richard Solomon

 

 

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