Bridge Bites

BRIDGE BITES #116

THE ART OF CONCEALMENT

Brian Gunnell

♠ T32

♥ J43

♦ AK62

♣ AT9

South opens 1NT, which nowadays usually shows 15-17 HCP. North bids 3NT, and West leads the ♥T.

Declarer (you) can see enough tricks once the ♣K is out of the way, but those Spades look somewhat fragile, there is the danger that East will get in with the ♣K and that the defense will then rattle off some Spade tricks.

We have two questions. Firstly, how do you play the Hearts? Secondly, how do you play the Clubs? These questions are not misprints, we’d really like to know!

Dummy

West East

Declarer

♠ Q86

♥ AKQ

♦ J7

♣ QJ876

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Let’s start with the Hearts. Declarer can see that West’s opening Heart lead is from T9xx or some such holding. But, looking at things from East’s seat, it might well appear to be from holdings such as AT9x or KT9x or QT9x. How can Declarer muddy the waters and create some doubt in East’s mind? She could routinely play low from Dummy, as most would, but the play most likely to cause confusion is surely the Jack! Declarer then wins the trick with the Ace, and East will say to himself: “I’ve seen this movie before. Declarer was hoping that I had the Queen and would cover. Clearly she is laying a false trail and has AK doubleton in the suit”

OK, now that Declarer has created some doubt in East’s mind about the Heart situation, how should she play the Clubs?

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