Lack of Tempo

West leads the ♦3. south wins the ♦A. At trick two south leads a spade from dummy, East plays low, and south’s ♠Q drives out West’s ♠K. At trick three West plays the ♦2, West has led either a five-card diamond suit or a doubleton. If West has led from a doubleton, the hand cannot be made as there are four losers; two spades, one heart and one diamond. Since the hand cannot be made if West has two diamonds, south should play West for five diamonds and insert the ♦9. East will ruff, but would lack a tempo to set up a heart winner. If East returns a heart, south can win, knock out East’s trump ace, win the heart return and lead a diamond to the ♦J to pitch his losing heart. 

A husband invites three friends over to play bridge. Throughout the evening he keeps pestering his wife: “Honey, could you bring us some drinks?”, “Some sandwiches would be nice, dear”, “Have we any cake?” and so on. After his friends leave, he finds his wife in the kitchen cleaning up. “You look busy,” he says, “Can I give you a hand?” “That would be great” she says. “Okay, you have got 5 spades to ace, KQJ and another heart, 4 clubs…..!” 

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Vital Entry to Dummy

On sunny hot summer day,

Chirping birds come my way

small, big, beautiful, smashing,

take a dip in water splashing!

With ten trumps missing the queen, it is normal to play the Ace and King and hope the Queen drops.If spades are 2-1, that would give you ten tricks. Here only a 3-0 trump break threatens you and, as cards lie. The opponents can come to one trick in each suit and beat you. The diamond lead has removed your only entry to dummy but you can safe guard your contract by leading a spade to the ♠J. As the cards lie, this wins and you claim ten tricks after drawing trumps.

If ♠J loses to West ♠Q, dummy’s ♠6 becomes an entry on the third round of trumps. You ruff a diamond return with a high trump, draw last trump and lead a heart to the ♥K.

East can take the ♥A but you win any return, lead the spade to dummy and cash the heart winner, discarding your club loser.

Every exit is an entry somewhere else!

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Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Shaky Trump Suit

‘The Heat and the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves and flowers growing on the trees, I had the familiar conviction that life was beginning all over again, with summer!’

It’s a bit unnerving to play in a trump contract missing the AKQXX of your trump suit, plus three other losers, but life goes on.

It looks like six losers even if trumps divide 3-2.  However, where there’s life…

It clubs divide 3-3, South can play four rounds of clubs (overtaking the ♣J) and discard a heart from dummy while one opponent or the other ruffs.

Look at the East-West hands.  If West ruffs, West is ruffing with a trump trick.  South winds up losing three spades and two diamonds, but no hearts.  If West discards and East ruffs, low, South’s opponents’ spade honours would collide on the next two leads of the suit.  Once again South makes his contact.

When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something!

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A Sheer Gamble

The 4♠ bid by South was a sheer gamble! the ♥K probably onside and only two aces missing, the risk is acceptable. As South has clearly shown longer diamonds than spades, north should have given preference back to 5♦. 

The lead is the ♦7 to East’s ♦A. East shifts to ♣K and South ruffs. 

In 4♠, it does not help to cross to the ♦9 (even if it is not ruffed) to lead a trump, since South is bound to lose two trump tricks anyway if South is to make this contract, he needs the spades 3-3. therefore, South should proceed on that basis. After ruffing the ♣K at trick two South should play the ♠K. if East ducks, he should continue with the ♠Q and third spade. if trumps are 3-3, South can cross to ♦9 and take the heart finesse. on the actual deal South succeeds. 

On their wedding night a couple arrives at their hotel room and the phone rings. the husband answers and talks with his friend about a bridge hand. 

The conversation continues for hours as the friend tells how he went down in six spades. 

When it finally ends, the distraught wife is in tears and says, “How can he be so inconsiderate? that was terrible!” 

“You are right, honey. All he had to do was take a finesse.”

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Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora