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It’s Good News Week.

Well, it must be. Most of our bridge clubs are back in operation while there are several tournaments taking place this coming week-end like:

“Spa Town” Teams                         Saturday at the Hamilton Bridge Club (32 teams)

Howick Open Pairs                        Saturday                   26 pairs

Howick Intermediate Pairs             Saturday                   14 pairs

Wellington Regional Teams          Saturday                   18 teams

Richmond Open Pairs                  Saturday                   40 pairs

Rangiora All Grades Pairs           Sunday                      50 pairs (full)

That’s 50 teams and 130 pairs in 6 events, a total of 460 players nationwide.

More Good News

That is in our deal of the day. We reached a somewhat dubious 4 contract thanks to a touch of overbidding (so, what’s new!) and we do want to make it, don’t we? Make it happen!

 

You bid 1 hoping to bail out in perhaps 1NT or 2NT, a better spot than say a 3-3 club fit. “Bailing out” occurred at the game level! West led 7 and you won in hand (East playing  J) to run 7 to East’s ace. Back came 7 and you play 8 to West’s ace. Plan the play. West will exit 4.

Well, the good news day started when we won the opening lead and lost trick 2 to the A. That J is where we need it. However, what we do not have is many entries to the South hand, mainly because we only have a five count! We need a further one to take another finesse of the J (Hearts had better be 3-2 or else it is all getting too hard!)…and then we need two more to take diamond finesses, as the K must be with West. This is, after all, a “good news day”.

We do not have three more entries or maybe not have but we can create a possible extra trick for our side by playing the Q under the ace. It looks like West does not hold J as if they did, they would surely have played it rather than the ace. Looking at KJ and K, they would know you would want to be in the South hand as often as possible.

The unblock of the Q might be critical because although West’s club return offered you what seemed like a working finesse of 10, many defenders have been known to false-card when playing J on the first round of the suit. Therefore, if there is an alternative to the club finesse, then take it. This was the full lay-out:

 

So, the club finesse would have worked but so did the alternative line of winning A and taking a finesse of J. Now, all that was required was a heart towards the queen. West can take their ace but cannot harm South. They can exit J with a club ruff providing the last entry needed to the South hand to discard J on the K and take the one successful diamond finesse required to make 10 tricks.

A touch of good fortune? Certainly. Three successful finesses and a 3-2 trump break. You still had to take advantage of this good fortune, especially by playing Q under the ace. If you do not, you could strike trouble when West exits a spade. So, the unblock was indeed important.

Next time, all the finesses will fail and you will finish three down and wish you had passed 1! “Good news day” does not happen every day but take advantage of it when it does.

Let’s hope your finesses work too if you are one of the 460 playing in a tournament this Saturday.

Defending is not for the faint-hearted. Try this. You are East.

 

After a negative response to a game-forcing 2, North comes to life with a splinter bid (at least three hearts and 0/1 spade) in support of hearts. South jumps directly to slam.

West leads 9 to your king and declarer’s ace. Declarer ruffs a spade at trick 2 playing J from hand and partner Q and then plays three rounds of trumps, being a little disappointed when you discard 3 (encouraging) on the second round. West wins the Q on the third round and exits a third round of spades, ruffed by declarer.

South leads out their remaining two trumps. They discard a diamond and three small clubs from dummy on four rounds of hearts leaving on dummy:

                         Q964   and J

West throws two spades on the two hearts. 8 has not appeared.

Which 5 cards do you keep?

See you on Friday.

Richard Solomon

 

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