All News

And the Danger is…..?

Often the danger that can await you on a board may not be apparent as it can arise from a card or series of cards held by the declarer. On the following deal, the defender should have been aware of the danger as it stared at him from the cards he could see, in the dummy. Are you awake to the danger?

 

North showed a balanced 18-19 (2NT) and then three spades but not four hearts in response to his partner’s check-back enquiry (3).

Your partner, East, led 4 and when declarer played low from dummy, you inserted the 10, won by declarer’s ace. It looked like your partner held the Q, a good start for the defence.

Declarer played AK and a third heart which your partner won with the Q. You had a slight discarding issue but decided on the 3. (Your partner may have led from a three card club suit.) They continued with a small club to your king. You continued with your 8 to partner’s 9 with the Q taking the next trick as the declarer threw low diamonds from both hands. Your partner next led 8 to dummy’s ace and your Q.

All seemed fine until declarer called for dummy’s J. What do you discard from

 J732 and  K? The answer is that you should refuse to discard anything as you have subjected yourself to a squeeze. You should be throwing a low club…but you played that card a few tricks earlier!

Our West chose a spade but the declarer took the rest of the tricks as these were the four hands:

 

You had been staring at dummy for a few minutes and after the first three rounds of hearts, should have realised that when declarer won the lead with the A, they would cash the high J.

There were two ways you could have avoided this terrible squeeze. Firstly, on the third round of hearts, you could have thrown the K, virtually pleading for partner to play diamonds not clubs. Then, you could throw the 3 on the J and all would be well with a diamond, three clubs and a spade for the defence.

Alternatively, throw the 3 or a low club but when you gain the lead with the K, do not play a third round of the suit. Play K yourself so that on the J, you can throw which of the little club or diamond you still held. Eventually, declarer plays three high spades and has to concede the last three tricks to the defence.

Some squeezes you cannot avoid. Others are hard to imagine when the important cards are not visible. However, when the danger is before your eyes, you should not be caught out as West was above.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

Go Back View All News Items