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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Time for A Change.

When to switch: when to keep going? These questions are central to defending so many hands. You can play a suit for one round too long and pay the price and equally switch too soon. There’s no guiding rule with every deal having different considerations.

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North Deals
E-W Vul
A Q J 5
10 7 4
A 4
Q J 10 4
   
N
W   E
S
 
6
A K J 9 8 3
Q J 6
A 3 2
West North East South
  Dummy You  
  1 NT 2  2 
Pass 3  Pass 4 
All pass      

 

North opens a Weak no trump. You overcall with South competing. North is maximum in support of spades and invites with South happy to accept.

 Your partner leads Heart-small5. You play Heart-smallK followed by the Heart-smallA on which declarer plays Heart-small6 followed by Heart-smallQ. Your partner plays   Heart-small 2 on the second round.

What next?

The opposition have struggled to game. Partner has led your suit. There’s nothing remarkable in that. You have managed to score two tricks in that suit and including the fallen Heart-smallQ can see or account for 31 hcp. There’s not many left for declarer and even fewer for your partner!

Assuming your Club-smallA holds up, you need one further trick to beat the game. A trump trick is one possibility if West had Spade-smallK with the other option being if West held either minor king.

At the table, East chose to try the effect of a third round of hearts…but that did not cause South any problems:

North Deals
E-W Vul
A Q J 5
10 7 4
A 4
Q J 10 4
7 2
5 2
K 10 8 7 5 3
8 7 5
 
N
W   E
S
 
6
A K J 9 8 3
Q J 6
A 3 2
 
K 10 9 8 4 3
Q 6
9 2
K 9 6
West North East South
  Dummy You  
  1 NT 2  2 
Pass 3  Pass 4 
All pass      

 

Ruff high, draw trumps and concede a trick to the Club-smallA. No diamond trick for the defence. East was expecting far too much from West’s trump suit. Most play a double of 2Heart-small as take-out which meant that West had 2 or 3 spades but not four. Certainly, East would have been correct if the one honour West held was the Spade-smallK though one wonders if South would have accepted the invitation with a 5 or 6 card suit headed by the Spade-small10.

Had West held Club-smallK, there would either always be two tricks in that suit for the defence or always only one at best if South had five spades and five diamonds. However, there was some chance of a fourth trick if West did hold the Diamond-smallK.

Time for a change...of suit.   and

South Deals
N-S Vul
K 9
J 5
A K 8 5 4 3
9 5 3
   
N
W   E
S
 
A 7 5 4 2
9 6 4
Q 10 9 7
J
West North East South
  dummy you  
      1 
Pass 2  Pass 2 
Dbl Rdbl 2  Pass
Pass 3  3  4 
Dbl 4  Pass 4 
All pass      

 

A complex looking auction saw West enter a live auction ("double") and find a spade fit. However, their opponents had agreed hearts and then cue-bid both minors (first or second round controls) before subsiding in 4Heart-small.

West led the Spade-smallQ with declarer, ever hopeful, covering with East’s Spade-smallA winning the first trick. What now? East thought it could not be wrong to switch to their singleton club. After all, West had doubled 4Club-small. They had visions of partner winning Club-smallA, scoring a ruff, back with the spade to the queen and then a second ruff.

Such was the theory.

South Deals
N-S Vul
K 9
J 5
A K 8 5 4 3
9 5 3
Q J 10 8
10 8
J 6
K Q 8 4 2
 
N
W   E
S
 
A 7 5 4 2
9 6 4
Q 10 9 7
J
 
6 3
A K Q 7 3 2
2
A 10 7 6

 

The Club-smallA won the trick (but not in partner's hand!)and was followed by two rounds of diamonds, discarding the spade loser and then three rounds of trumps. A low club towards dummy’s Club-small9 left West with no winning solution. They could take two club tricks but not three and South had come to 10 tricks.

A spade return at trick two would have given South no chance, well almost no chance as a careless Club-smallK at trick 3 would have swung the pendulum back in declarer’s favour.

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No time for a change.

Perhaps some of the blame (an unfortunate word we always seem to use when the defence errs!) can be attributed to West’s over-active bidding, especially the double of 4Club-small. The defence were also unlucky that East could not retain the lead at trick 2. (Declarer can be very grateful for that Spade-small9 in dummy.)

While it was hard for East to see how the Club-smallJ switch could cost, it was certain that South had long hearts and likely length in clubs. That might lead them to the conclusion that any spade tricks the defence could take would need to be taken quickly as those high diamonds were a potential threat.

Thus, South avoided joining the longish list of declarers who have cue-bid looking for slam and then failed to make 10 tricks in game!

It would be wonderful to be right most of the time, even some of the time! Was East unlucky on both the above deals; more so perhaps on the second. Part of the fascination, the aggravation of the game and why we keep bidding aggressive games is because of the difficulties defenders so often have. The opening lead can be hard enough: it seems the follow up is not any easier!

 How Good is our hand?

     
North Deals
None Vul
 
N
W   E
S
   
 
K 7
8 7 4 3
A K 10 7 6 5 2
West North East South
  1  Pass 1 
1  3 NT Pass ?

 

1Club-small is at least a 3- card suit. After West’s overcall, our partner leaps straight to game. A 2NT response from your partner shows a balanced 18-19. It’s your bid. You have a day to make it, a very generous amount of time.The director will not be rushing you!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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