Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #119

THE ONLY CHANCE

Brian Gunnell

♠ 93

♥ T98

♦ AK92

♣ 7652

Suppose that you are playing in a duplicate (matchpoint) event. Nobody is vulnerable, East opens 1♥, and E-W bid up to 3♥. Now N-S compete with 3♠ and that gets doubled. Playing in Hearts, E-W would probably make 9 tricks, and that’s -140 for N-S. But here N-S are in 3♠ doubled and will get a good result only if they can hold their losses to down one, scoring -100. Down two for -300 would be very bad indeed. You are Declarer, how do you propose to escape for down one?

North

West East

Declarer

♠ AK8652

♥ K

♦ J63

♣ 983

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Playing 3^rd and 5^th leads, West starts out with the Heart Two to East’s Ace, and East shifts to the ♣K. West overtakes that with the Ace and returns a Club. East continues with Club winners and West shows out on the third round. What do you play on the fourth round of Clubs? Remember, you have already lost four tricks and can lose only one more if you are to escape with a good board.

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Ruffing the fourth Club high cannot be right, that will ensure that the defense scores two trump tricks. Nor can it be right to pitch a Diamond, that is also a guaranteed down two. Perhaps surprisingly, the only chance is to ruff low. Your hope is that West has three trumps and that therefore, if he overruffs, it will be with a natural trump trick. So, that’s what you do, West does overruff, the return of the ♥J is ruffed and the remaining trumps fall in two rounds.

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