Dubious Logic

Mesmerism

It's strange how certain deals seem to mesmerise even quite experienced players. And by that I'm not thinking of those seductive errors that when you compare scores you discover the same mistake has been perpetrated at both tables, more that there seems to be some sort of malign influence that causes panic or resignation. This is an example of what I have in mind; from a recent Crockfords match:

West led the heart queen, North ruffed and laid down the spade ace. He now tried to ruff his clubs in dummy but West trumped the second round. Here she might have tried a low diamond to put declarer to a guess but one he was likely to get right. In practice the ace of diamonds was cashed and that was the last trick for the defence: dummy still had three trumps for North's three losing clubs. What went wrong?

At the critical point, when the second top club was led, West should have reasoned as follows. "North can continue to ruff clubs but eventually he will have to play a diamond –because dummy doesn't have enough hearts for him to ruff back to hand. When that diamond is played, I will win the ace and draw a round of trumps, declarer will have five trumps, four in clubs including ruffs and a diamond – not enough."

At the other table the auction was different but East-West again competed to five hearts and the same contract was reached, also doubled. East again led a heart and North ruffed and ducked a trump. This seems to run counter to what he wants to do but we'll focus on the defence. Another heart was played and declarer ruffed, played the top clubs (concealing his disappointment they were 5-1) and led a diamond, ducked by West. North played another diamond and East was in with her side's second trick.

Her choices were to play a diamond allowing the establishment of that suit, a club was the same thing there and a heart was a ruff and discard. Caught between a rock and a hard place? Again a count of North's tricks would have saved her. True, either minor was fatal but the 'ruff and discard' was an illusion – it benefits declarer when he is unable to make his trumps separately. Here, he could always score dummy's spade by ruffing a club – trumping a heart was, in anything, less useful to him. In any case, it would not have increased his trick count from five trumps, two ruffs, a heart and two clubs – one short.

Published Saturday 18.Mar.2006