It's a Temptation

I hear thunder, I hear thunder! Oh! Don’t you? 

West starts with two top clubs. After removing opponent’s trumps, there is a temptation to assume that West has the ♦A for his two level overcall, but, that is unnecessary. 

After ruffing the second club, south should go to dummy with a trump, ruff another club, return to dummy with a trump, and ruff the last club. Then continue with three rounds of hearts. 

If West wins the trick and leads a low diamond, south will have to guess what to do. But here, East wins the third heart and is endplayed. If he leads a heart, south ruffs in hand and discards a diamond from the dummy. Alternatively, if he shifts to a diamond, dummy’s ♦K must score and declarer’s tenth trick. 

“Do not be angry with the rain, it simply does not know how to fall upwards!”

Blog          : http://www.hemadeora.blogspot.in

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Dubious Success

East won his ♣a, returned a club and south daringly finessed his ♣J. Flushed with that dubious success, south led a trump to drive out the ♥a, and another club return provided the clincher. West ruffed the third club and cashed his ♦a and the game went one down! 

Had south not won his sully finesse, he would have surely made his game. had he won the second trick with the ♣k, he would have seen the need to quickly discard his ♣J on one of dummy’s high spades. 

Situation is no different when south is left with the winning ♣k. Before touching trumps, he should cash dummy’s high spades, ditching the ♣k. When East wins the ♥a, the club return proves harmless. south ruffs high and draws the remaining trump, and the defenders get only three tricks. 

Indefinite plans get dubious results!

Blog          : http://www.hemadeora.blogspot.in

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

A Smart Move

 

Above deal was played by one of the fine players, a dapper and ever smiling Uttam Gupta, against two stalwarts, Manas and Samir.

Sitting West manas led ♦4, ♦8 from dummy, East ♦10 and Uttam won with ♦K. Initially, south had three spades and two diamond losers. No way south could ruff a heart in the dummy as East would over ruff and two rounds of diamonds would doom the doubled contract.

Amazingly uttam made a smart move! He played a spade from the hand, West took it with ♠10, cashed a and exited with ♣4. Dummy played the ♠A, and ruffed a club, a heart to ♣K, and another club ruff in hand. South cashed ♠K and ruffed a spade in dummy. Now was a master stroke! Uttam played the ♣10 and when East ruffed with ♦6 he under ruffed with ♦5. Samir, Sitting East must have begun to squirm as he was left with the ♦A and ♦J had to give the ♦Q as ninth trick and a doubled contract!

South’s eyes must have shone with strange light!!

Well played utttam!!

Sometimes, it’s a smart move to play dumb, but it’s almost always a dumb move to act smart!

Blog          : http://www.hemadeora.blogspot.in

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Guarantee The Contract

After a long time, my friend who lives on the 21st floor invited me for a game of rubber bridge.  He said before the monsoon, the sunset view is amazing from his terrace, and I must not miss it! so, I was there watching this beautiful sun setting scene and of course kibitzing south playing the above deal. 

West led the ♠3 and dummy’s ♠K won as East followed with the ♠Q. Declarer then led the ♣Q and finessed. When it held, south switched to hearts, finessing the ♥J when East followed low. The finesse won and declarer then cashed the ♣a, dropping the ♣K from East hand. A spade to the ♠a dropped the ♠J from East. Declarer now ran the clubs, repeated the heart finesse and won thirteen tricks! 

I looked totally dazzled by this miraculous play while my friend from 21st floor gave a big applause saying ‘Bravo, well played’. A faint smile appeared on the declarer’s hard face! south was adding more and more risk to the line of his play. 

South’s main concern should have been to guarantee the contract and that can be done by winning the ♠K, playing a club to the ♣a and then a second club to dummy’s ♣10 regardless of the distribution of the hidden cards. 

Thank god, I could fall back on the beautiful sunset at the twilight of my life.

Blog          : http://www.hemadeora.blogspot.in

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora