Dubious Logic

Under the Microscope

It is always pleasant to be complimented by an opponent – and rare too. And not so cynical! I don't mean to say that the bridge players of Suffolk are a curmudgeonly lot, more that I seldom hear such positive remarks. So when it happened recently, I had to take a closer look. I was defending as South:

Looking at the East-West bidding sequence one knows a strong hand is sure to appear as dummy but despite the point-count, the actual West cards look a little light. The flat shape and the lack of a fourth trump would worry me. Nevertheless, practical decisions have to be made at the table and the jump to game was straightforward, you have to give it that. I led the diamond queen, declarer won in dummy and took stock.

He decided to cross to the ace of spades in the closed hand and produced the knave of hearts, king, ace, low. He cashed the queen and again paused for thought when I discarded a club. I wasn't sure about that and wondered why I was keeping the fourth round of spades. Eventually East decided to play another trump – I threw another club – and then ace and another diamond, partner discarding a club and declarer following with the nine-eight. I could and should have re-constructed the position:

I was still just staring at those South cards. Why had declarer put me in? He seemed keen to ruff a diamond to hand so I played a low spade. In fact a diamond was not safe at all - declarer would ruff and have ten tricks; five hearts, two ace-kings and a lead towards the club king.

The spade king won in dummy, partner retaining his queen. East next tried the last diamond pitching a spade (partner a club). I won and played another spade which he had to ruff. He could draw North's last trump but when he came to play a club towards dummy's king, I claimed the last two tricks with the club ace and the last spade.

Under the microscope, both declarer and defence had gone wrong. Clearly East regretted playing the knave of hearts for a repeat finesse and might have been clued in (by the double of one heart) to start with a small card. Even after that he could played spades, forcing South to attack diamonds and using the East-West spot cards in that suit – or even ducking to the club ace. In the diagram above, North should have divested himself of the spade queen when the king won. Declarer could have played another spade leaving North with no good card to play.

But bridge is a tough game: you may not get everything right but if you avoid doing what is good for the other side, you may even occasionally get a compliment - you'll just have to decide if you deserve it.

Published Saturday 2.Feb.2008