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              SAFETY FIRST.

When you cross a road, you look both ways, every way, and then once again, just to be sure. You want to make it to the other side, unscathed. For a bridge player, faced with making a certain number of tricks, that means playing a hand in such a way that you eliminate as many dangers as you can, to be sure. Sometimes, the lure of overtricks, so useful in the Pairs context, especially, causes us to not be as careful we might. Yet, there are a surprising number of match-points to be obtained by just ensuring you make your contract.

This situation should be known to many:

 

North makes a slightly strange lead of 2 which goes to the 10, J and ace. West leads the 10 covered and won in dummy. The bad news strikes as soon as South discards to trick 3. Declarer finished up down 2 as that lovely diamond suit only produced 3 tricks.

4-1 breaks occur quite frequently (around 20% of the time) as most of us know only too well. Actually, they seem to occur far more frequently than that! Add to that the occasional 5-0 (not that you can do much here were that the break in diamonds) and a piece of care was required. Duck the J. You now have 5 diamond tricks, two in clubs, and two major suit aces. You can decide depending on discards whether and how you will play for overtricks. Make sure of your contract first. Safety first.

 So, that brings us back to yesterday’s problem.

 

West leads the Q. Over to you.

South looked very happy and relaxed at the sight of dummy. There looked like a club loser, one in hearts and the A….or so South thought. They might even be able to sneak that diamond through without the ace appearing. Maybe an overtrick!

So, South won the opening lead and played a spade the A…. and any thoughts of that overtrick vanished. They had not looked both ways and a car, or shall we say West’s spade void, ended the carefree approach South had to the contract.

With a certain trump loser, unless South could reach dummy, even scoring 10 tricks now looked bleak.

 

South tried a diamond, though East seized that and played a low club. South won and exited their heart, which produced another club. There was no way out. South was one down. No overtrick!

Plan early    

 

As is so often the case, declarer could have done better at trick 1. Ducking the Q was no cost. Indeed, if West fails to continue with a second heart, the contract is cold since there will be a certain entry to dummy for either the spade finesse or club discard on the diamond honour.

However, even after the heart continuation, the contract is almost certain to make as long as South takes a safety play.

They lead 2 to trick 3, with East playing 6. Simply cover with 9! If West wins with singleton or doubleton Q. you are still happy. Maybe, but probably not, you have just cost your side an overtrick. However, you have ensured 10 tricks. Were West to win, they can switch to a low club. Declarer wins, draws the one remaining trump and plays a diamond. That 5 remains as an important entry to dummy for you to discard your club loser….contract making.

On the above lay-out, the 9 will win trick 3. No spade loser: contract made. The sun is still shining. Of course, were West to hold all three spades, then you are entitled to say a rude word (under your breath, of course!) and will now have to hope you can sneak the first round of diamonds through or else your contract will fail.

Some safety plays, like this one, are not 100% but are far superior than winning tricks 1 and 2. Look every which way you can.

 

North’s 2was a fairly standard Multi 2 with West’s double of South's pass or correct 2 being for take-out. After North owned up to a weak 2 in spades, East made a take-out double of 2. South elected to call 3. 

It was a little strange that South did not bid 2 at their first opportunity, Pass or Correct to hearts style. However, South "corrected" to 3 which East doubled for penalties. That became the final contract. Your lead?

We will answer in the morning.

Richard Solomon

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