What's going on?
One of the most sought after comments in the bridge world is that so-and-so '..always seems to know what is going on..'. Of course this is a question you should ask yourself on almost every deal and, unless you're certain you know, every deal in defence. Put yourself at this table, you have a nice lead coming into the final quarter when you have to defend a slam.
| ♠ A72 | ||||
| ♥ AJ1065 | ||||
| ♦ 6 | ||||
| ♣ KQJ6 | ||||
| ♠ 854 | ||||
| ♥ 943 | ||||
| ♦ KJ6 | ||||
| ♣ A875 | ||||
| West | North | East | South | |
| 1♥ | ||||
| Pass | 2NT* | Pass | 3♣* | |
| Pass | 3♦* | Pass | 4♥ | |
| Pass | 4NT* | Pass | 5♣* | |
| Pass | 6♥ | All Pass |
North showed a heart fit with his first bid and South's response showed his opener was a five card suit. Three diamonds showed a hand interested in slam and four hearts showed one that wasn't. The Blackwood call elicited one key card from the four aces and the heart king and that was that. West started with the only card to give his side a chance, the ace of clubs. However he now took his eye off the ball.
Gulled by the instinctive reaction that when the opposition use Blackwood they won't have two aces missing, he played another club. As I'm sure you can appreciate, the one key card South held couldn't be the diamond ace – he had admitted to five hearts in the auction and that meant partner had none, so declarer had to hold the trump king, his sole key card. Indeed his hand was ♠ KQ103 ♥ KQ872 ♦ 1095 ♣ 9 and the North was hoping that the trump king was missing and finessable. This one is a touch harder,
| ♠ KQJ7 | ||||
| ♥ J76 | ||||
| ♦ KJ76 | ||||
| ♣ A10 | ||||
| ♠ 54 | ||||
| ♥ Q9843 | ||||
| ♦ A1042 | ||||
| ♣ K6 | ||||
| West | North | East | South | |
| 1♦ | Pass | 1♠ | ||
| Pass | 3♠ | Pass | 4♠ | |
| All Pass | ||||
You lead a low heart and this goes to the King and ace. Declarer plays a spade to dummy and a low heart to his ten, partner playing the highest outstanding spot. You win the queen and must have formed your plan by now… South is surely hoping to discard a minor suit loser on dummy heart. His trip to dummy means partner surely doesn't have the trump ace. You have one heart, one club at most (surely) and so you must try to get two diamonds before declarer's putative doubleton can be discarded. All this thought should have occurred to you as soon as South gave you your heart trick. That means you have optimised your chances of a mis-guess when you switch to a low diamond.
Published Saturday 26.May.2001