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Where is she?

Jan’s Day: a problem from a barrage bid.

No matter how good a player one is, one does not get all decisions right in the area of high-level bidding. Take a look at this:

 

West leads 7 which East wins with 9. They continue with 10. Plan the play.

Today’s deal was from the 1981 New Zealand Teams, before the days of the National Congress. The event was held in Wellington over Labour Weekend.

  
Jan Cormack

Jan’s Day: A Troublesome Queen.

“Lionel Wright’s Auckland team tied with the team of Bill Haughie, Alan Turner, Tony Taylor and Stanley Abrahams with 148 vps each. The two teams tied over 220 boards but also in their head-to-head match. Thus, Haughie’s team won the event because of a 43-42 imp result in their head-to-head match.

This deal from this event shows how a barrage bid can set the other side a real problem. In the hot seat was the bright young Christchurch international, Paul Marston.

After West’s 7 lead, East took the first trick with 9 and then played 10. The declarer had to decide if the 7 was a singleton and if so, who was more likely to hold the Q.

Would East have bid a vulnerable 5 with just 8 diamonds and nothing outside or would he more likely have a 9-card suit? While West had 12 unknown cards, East had only 5 at most (non-diamond) cards.

The declarer favoured the odds of 12 to 5 that West held the Q and accordingly ruffed the diamond with the K and finessed West for the Q.

Unfortunately for the declarer, the fates were unkind as these were the opponents’ hands:

 

Was the declarer’s line the best?”

It is hard to believe that a singleton queen would make the difference as to whether one jumps all the way to 5 as compared with a more sedate jump to the 4-level. The recommendation for vulnerable pre-emptive jumps is that one should be within two tricks of one’s contract, which means that East took a huge risk on the above hand with 5 losers.

However, if the loss of 800 stopped the opponents from making a vulnerable slam, then perhaps the risk was worth it.

As you can see, there were two situations when playing the K would work out badly for South. Firstly, it is a losing play when East has doubleton Q but it also meant that declarer was unlikely to make their contract when East held the singleton Q either.

Ruffing lower meant South could still keep their options open when West did produce a second diamond and would be the right play when West had only one diamond but no Q.

Paul Marston has gone on to make many many right decisions in his bridge career in Australia. If he played the odds correctly this time, his decision proved unlucky.

For less experienced players and others: A routine game?

 

North’s 4 was a fast arrival sign off. South did just that. West led Q. Plan the play. There are no bad breaks and trumps break 3-2.

Richard Solomon

 

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