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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
Two Ways Home.
Today’s deal came from the final round of the Auckland Easter Teams and gave both declarers a little headache. They were to solve it in different ways.
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Pass |
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2 ♣ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
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4 ♣ |
Pass |
4 ♦ |
Pass |
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4 ♠ |
Pass |
5 ♦ |
Pass |
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6 ♣ |
All pass |
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Apart from the opening Game Forcing 2
, the bidding was natural. How would you play on the lead of 
10 from North.
At the second table, West opened a Precision style 1. North doubled to show both majors. East showed a positive response with diamonds (2 showed diamonds). West then relayed and discovered their partner had at least 6 diamonds and had 4 hearts. He then key-carded in hearts being interested in the missing ace and the 
K. East showed 1 key card whereupon West settled in 6. Same 10 lead. How do you play?
At the first table, West did not know that much about the opponents’ hands. The 10 had been led very soon after the bidding was over. Hugh McGann (West) gave this opening lead considerable thought and eventually inserted J from dummy. That held the trick!
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Pass |
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2 ♣ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
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4 ♣ |
Pass |
4 ♦ |
Pass |
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4 ♠ |
Pass |
5 ♦ |
Pass |
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6 ♣ |
All pass |
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Hugh cashed A discarding his heart loser. He then played a spade to the ace and ruffed 
8 in dummy. Back to the A to draw trumps, give up a spade and claim.
Once the J scored at trick 1, it was pretty straightforward for Hugh. It was a bit harder for Jerry Chen, West, at the other table. He knew his left hand opponent held both majors. That 10 looked dangerously like a singleton. So, he took his A and played a spade to the ace and then played Q. North covered and Jerry ruffed. He returned to hand via a diamond ruff. He then played out his remaining 5 trumps. With one trump left, this was the position:
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On J, North had to throw T and then (or J) Jerry had the luxury of end-playing North (Mike Doecke) in either major suit. He chose to play A and a second heart and very soon claimed 12 tricks. Hard work for a flat board!
Notice that tricky 10 lead at both tables (from Tom Jacob and Mike Doecke…the latter being end-played for his trouble!) and the importance of those two black singleton 9’s. Please also spare a thought too for the two South players, Michael Ware and Steph Jacob. Both, particularly Michael, have accumulated a wad of master-points over the years. Have they ever held a worse hand than the South one above?!
Richard Solomon
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