Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #107

WHAT’S YOUR PLAN B?

Brian Gunnell

♠ QJ732

♥ AQ6

♦ J98

♣ A3

E-W Vulnerable

South West North East

1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass

2♦ Pass 4♥ Pass

Pass Pass

West leads the ♣Q, won in Dummy. You are playing a duplicate event, meaning that an overtrick will be well rewarded in the scoring. What is your Plan A for making as many tricks as possible? When Plan A doesn’t work, you’ll need to follow up with a well-reasoned Plan B.

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ K

♥ KJ854

♦ AQ654

♣ 86

Let’s start with Plan A. What is it?

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Plan A must surely be to set up the Spades. If you can lose a Spade, ruff a Spade, and draw trumps ending in Dummy, then there are 10 tricks (assuming that Spades are 4-3 and trumps 3-2), with a valuable overtrick in the offing if the ♦K is onside. But Declarer cannot draw trumps before playing on Spades, she needs the ♥A and ♥Q as later entries to the board. So, Declarer loses the ♠K to West’s Ace, after which West cashes the ♣J and exits a trump, won in Dummy. You ruff a Spade, cash a high trump and cross to Dummy’s last trump (West showing out).

That’s the plan, but it comes to naught when the ♠Q is cashed and East shows out. With Spades 5-2, there are only three Spade tricks. Goodbye Plan A, hello Plan B. This requires playing Diamonds correctly, with Dummy’s ♦J98 opposite Declarer’s ♦AQ6, and with ♦KT732 somehow distributed between the defenders. There are two certain tricks here, but what’s the best play for three?

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