A Brilliant Battle

The above deal is from Rubber Bridge forwarded to me by our dear friend Deepak Parekh. We missed him at the Corporate Bridge Tournament. There was a brilliant battle between the defender and the declarer. 

West led ♣A, declarer feared three club losers and «A would scupper his contract. At trick one, East played ♣6 and South dropped ♣8 hoping deception might save him. The impression given was that East held ♣2 or ♣3 which means ♣6 is encouraging. West sensing the danger switched to ♦Q. Declarer had a second snare to set. He ducked it again in hand. West, certain that his partner must hold ♦A, continued with the ♦J. South won with ♦A. South played ♥A and ♥10 to dummy’s ♥J. Now he cashed ♦K, discarding ♠K from hand. West having shown up with ♣AK and ♦QJ, South felt confident that East held ♠A. Sure enough, when he led ♠Q, East covered with ♠A and South ruffed. Then he got back to dummy with ♥8 to ♥9 and discarded two clubs. Ten tricks made magnificently! 

‘It’s better to get something worthwhile done using deception than to fail to get something worthwhile done using truth.

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Danger of Trump Promotion

 

‘Raindrops from clouds and onto trees, 

Down the tree trunks and off the leaves,

The brook that leaps from

hill to plain,

The sound of rippling streams,

how beautiful is the rain!’

These exact thoughts would be in the minds of Mumbai bridgers who will be driving down through the Khandala ghats to Pune for The Poona Club annual tournaments over this weekend.

West opened weak notrump and North bid 2♣, the Astro convention promising hearts and a minor, typically at least 5-4. 

West starts with three rounds of clubs, East following throughout. Assuming trumps are splitting 3-2 yet there is a danger of falling into a trump promotion.

As West is marked with the ♥A from the bidding, you should play a diamond to your King, followed by a heart to dummy’s Jack. Then continue with the ♥Q, now the contract is safe. If West leads the last club, ruff in the dummy and, if East ruffs you, overruff, so there is no danger in promoting a trump trick. 

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

The Proper Line

Just three days more and our nation will be celebrating her 71st Independence Day. 

West led the ♣Q. Even though the ♣K was a goner, 5♠ looked cold. All South has to do is draw trumps and ruff a diamond in dummy. East took the ♣K with the ♣A and continued with a small club. 

South ruffed the club and led trump, East showed out. This means South couldn’t draw trumps and later ruff a diamond. As one can see from the layout South has a diamond loser on many lines of play. 

The proper line is to ruff the second club and lead the ♥Q. One of the opponents would win the heart and whatever they do, South has four entries to dummy to set up a heart trick and return to dummy to use it. 

A bridge player was matched up with another player when he showed up without a partner. All through the match, whenever he made a mistake, his partner would say, “No man is perfect.” Later the bridge player found out his name was Norman!

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

A distinct danger

The Corporate Bridge Association of India held their seventh annual bridge event at Taj Lands End yesterday. Mr Deepak Parekh is the President of this association. The secretary, Mr Debasish Ray, as usual, made sure that the event was a great success. 

In the above deal South competed with 2♠ and North came through with an excellent 4♠ bid. North bid on the assumption that he had shown nothing when in fact he had two valuable cards. 

West led the ♥K and ♥A. South ruffed and started after trumps. West took the second round. Had he continued hearts, South would have had the rest barring the club loser, but West switched to a club. North took his ♣A and tried to come to his hand with a diamond. Bad luck! West ruffed it and East’s ♣K became the setting trick. 

On the bidding, there is a distinct danger that West has no diamonds. East did bid them in response to the double. South can also more or less count on West’s having the ♠A. South should have discarded a club on the second heart. In this way, South could later ruff a club to his hand, keeping East off lead. 

“If you focus on playing good bridge then good results will come. If you focus on trying to get good results then you won’t play good bridge.”

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora