A fifty-fifty chance

ON Thursday, joyful and colourful festival of Holi will be celebrated in almost every part of the country. It’s the festival of colours and symbolises the triumph of good over the bad. 

West led ♦4. With three unavoidable losers in the black suits, declarer might take a fifty-fifty chance on a diamond finesse. 

The proper play should be that South wins dummy’s ♦A at trick one and leads a low club. East’s ♣10 wins and he would cash his ♦K before switching to spades. South should win ♠A, lead a club to ♣A and ruff a club high. A low trump should be led to dummy’s ♥9 and another club is ruffed high. Trumps are drawn, ending in dummy, and dummy’s fifth club provides the game-going trick. South loses only one spade, one diamond and one club. 

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them and do nothing.

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Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Further trap

SOUTH’S jump to 4♥promises a hand with distributional values and not necessarily an abundance of high cards. 

On the lead of ♠K, East plays ♠4, discouraging a spade continuation. West switches to ♣4, dummy plays ♣7, East ♣Q and South takes ♣A. If South draws one round of trumps, plays a ♣K, and ruffs a club low, East will overruff ♥7 with ♥Q and play his last trump. South will be left with a club loser. 

South will succeed if it plays no trumps at all before ruffing clubs, or if he plays to a high trump and leads a club towards his ♣K and takes his first club ruff with the other high trump. The second with that significant ♥7, South will lose a trick to ♥Q but makes the contract. 

There is one further trap to consider. If South crosses to the high heart and lead a club, East might ruff, put his partner in with a diamond and a third club will promote ♥Q. To avoid this trick, South should simply play a diamond. If East gets immediate club ruff, he ruffs a loser and declarer can then draw trumps and take the one club ruff that he would require. 

‘The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.’

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

The right timing

MY friend on the 21st floor invited me to see how some trees are shedding their leaves and how some others are blossoming with flowers. He said you get a lovely view from the top and I could take some
nice photographs from my telescopic camera and join to play some rubber bridge.

East’s 1NT shows a hand that would open 1NT — about 15-17 high card points and a club stopper. The double by South is for penalty. North didn’t have much for defense so he pulled out to 3 clubs and now South bid 3NT. 

Timing can be critical when there are several fragile suit combinations and tricks to lose before you can establish the winners you require to make your contract. East is marked with almost all the  outstanding high cards. 

Kibitzing above the deal, I was rather impressed the way sitting South, a young pretty, witty dame, played this deal. She won  ♠A at trick one. Since East is marked with ♠K, she played a club towards  ♣Q. East could win  ♣K or duck and win a club later but it is too late for him to set up the heart tricks. 

If the young chick had made the reflex play at trick one by following a low spade from dummy, East would have won and switched to a heart and it would have been too late for pretty, witty South to set up her ninth trick.

‘Time is an illusion, timing is an art.’

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Sure Entry

OUR friend ‘Apro’ Dara is ‘a friend in need is a friend deed’. He has given us another ‘juicy’ deal to enlighten us. 

West led  ♣6, dummy played  ♣2 and East  ♣8. If East held  ♣A, he would certainly have played it to avoid blocking the suit and possibly destroying a simple defense. Declarer must deduce this and consequently win trick one with  ♣K. Now, he cashes ♦A and ♦K and leads  ♣10 from hand. If West plays low, declarer can hop up with dummy’s  ♣Q. If West wins,  ♣Q will win later. Either way, there was sure entry.

‘Every exit is sure

entry somewhere else.’

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

Dummy reversal

End of January, the Willingdon Sports Club had their 5th annual bridge tournament. We came across this very interesting and rather swingy deal. Farokh Hansotia, ‘a jolly good fellow’, and Rustom Thanawalla, an ‘officer and a gentleman’, were the Willingdon club prize winners. Rustom sitting South was the declarer. With his dummy reversal skill, he played this deal brilliantly. 

They were playing the system where they show both the minors minimum 5/4 either way. On Rustom’s opening of 2♦, Farokh took a bold and beautiful plunge of 4NT and they landed in 6♦. Rather over ambitious slam. While 6♠or 6 ♣was the easier slam to make.

Rustom captured ♥J with ♥A, ruffed a heart with small diamond, entered the dummy with a club to  ♣A and ruffed a small heart with a small diamond. Now, he played ♠Q and overtook with ♠K and finesse the diamond towards ♦J. Cashed ♦K went to dummy with a small club to  ♣K, cashed ♦A pitching a small club. Came in his hand with ♠A, back in dummy to ♠J and on ♠10 threw the last club. Twelve tricks and the slam. Rustom needed both, guts and God! East gave an annoyed shake of his head and put down his glittering♦Q. Rustom’s and Farokh’s eyes shone with strange light. 

Well bid Farokh and well played Rustom. 

‘Losers visualise the penalties of failure; 
winners visualise the rewards of success!’

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

The need of a finesse

Today is the 15th Family Bridge Tournament at the Majestic Bombay Gymkhana in loving memory of Minoo Daver, the pioneer of this beautiful concept of involving the family. His gentle, loving and noble wife Dina, with the help of Hosie Hoosein, has been organising this event very successfully every year. Dr Dhanandjay Subarao is the pillar of strength behind this organisation. 

Would it make any difference if South had ♠Q in his hand instead of ♠4? 

South must try dummy’s ♥Q at trick one. If it wins, South can afford a losing diamond finesse. But if East produces ♥K, South will need the diamond finesse. 

However, if South had ♠Q as well, it will need the diamond finesse to win as well. Then South should play low from the dummy at trick one, and win in hand and take the diamond finesse. Everything is under control and South would win at least nine tricks.

 ‘Family that plays together, stays together.

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Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora

The risk is significant

THE Willingdon Sports Club held their 5th annual national-level bridge tournament last weekend at their well-manicured lawn. Dipak Podar headed the chairmanship and the other bridge stalwarts, like Maneck Hiranandani, Vinod Nevatia, etc., gave a helping hand to make this event a great success. 

When West led ♦7, ‘My goodness, these opponents seem friendly!’ thought South. ♦J was played and East won ♦K, returning ♦10. West followed with ♦3 as dummy’s ♦Q took the trick. 

South in his glory may have been able to make an overtrick here, but there was a significant risk in trying for it. 

If South had played ♦A and West would have trumped and led a heart? South could have won, cashed ♣A, trumped a club, trumped a diamond and trumped yet another club. Now, East could have won spade and returned a second round of hearts. There would have been four losers. A diamond, a diamond ruff, a spade and a club. 

South’s contract was as secure as South’s contentment. Ten tricks were guaranteed. All he had to do was after second diamond just cross ruffed the hand and he was through! 

‘The biggest risk is not taking any risk!’ 

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

Twitter ID  : @HemaDeora