5am Replay
I'm sure you're all familiar with those features in magazines, especially the weekend supplements, the celebrity questionnaire. One such has the question, "What keeps you awake at night?". Well, they certainly haven't interviewed any bridge players because the answer would surely be obvious. It's not that bridge hands wake one up, it's that after that car backfire, those carousing youths or the cat howling disturbs your sleep, your mind starts working and replaying the hands of the night before. And it is seldom the triumphs, it is the disasters:
| NS Vul. Dealer North | ♠ Q1076 | ||
| ♥ AQ5 | |||
| ♦ Q6 | |||
| ♣ J1043 | |||
| ♠ KJ9854 | ♠ 3 | ||
| ♥ 43 | ♥ K72 | ||
| ♦ AKJ8 | ♦ 10542 | ||
| ♣ Q | ♣ 98652 | ||
| ♠ A2 | |||
| ♥ J10986 | |||
| ♦ 973 | |||
| ♣ AK7 | |||
| West | North | East | South | |
| Pass | Pass | 1♥ | ||
| 1♠ | X | Pass | 1NT | |
| 2♠ | 2NT | End |
West decided to have a look at dummy and led a top diamond; that clarified matters and she continued with her other honours and a fourth round to East's ten. On this trick, having not been called upon to make any great decisions so far, I parted with a small club from hand, I had let go one of each black suit from dummy. East could see there was not much future in spades and played a club. I won perforce and saw the queen fall on my left. I next ran the heart knave. It lost, the unhappy position was now:
| ♠ Q107 | |||
| ♥ AQ | |||
| ♦ --- | |||
| ♣ J10 | |||
| ♠ KJ9854 | ♠ 3 | ||
| ♥ 3 | ♥ 72 | ||
| ♦ --- | ♦ --- | ||
| ♣ --- | ♣ 9862 | ||
| ♠ A2 | |||
| ♥ 10986 | |||
| ♦ --- | |||
| ♣ K | |||
East switched accurately to a spade and my goose was cooked: I had the tricks but couldn't get to them. I felt a fool for having blocked the hearts - it's the sort of thing that keeps you awake. But around 5am I realised I wasn't in such good shape. East was clearly more aware of what was going on than I was and, had I played a heart to the queen she would have a counter – she could duck this. By withholding the king and forcing me to play off the heart ace (else I couldn't get heart tricks) she could strand my club winner in dummy, much as above.
Where I had really gone wrong was that careless discard of a small club on the fourth diamond. West was marked with six spades so I didn't need the second spade but I really did need the transportation (or even a finesse) in the club suit. Now I would be OK…
But wait a moment! Going back even further, if West had led her small diamond at trick three to her partner's ten, a spade would finish declarer however the play went. The defence have four diamonds, a heart and use the diamond suit to get West in to cash a spade for the setting trick. Very nice – but I doubt it's keeping them awake.
Published Saturday 6.Oct.2007