Bridge

Alan Hiron
Thursday 16 October 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

When South saw dummy on this deal, the precise sequence of play did not seem important. However, a slight error in timing led to defeat against an accurate defence.

East opened 1#, South overcalled with 1!, and North raised directly to game. East dithered (5# would have cost 500 after a trump lead) but passed and West led #3 against Four Hearts. South ruffed the third round of diamonds and led a heart to the ace to discover the 4-0 break. This bad division meant that South needed two entries to hand to draw trumps without loss but, as long as East held 4A, there seemed no problem. He came to hand with 2K and took the marked trump finesse.

Too late South saw a snag. If he cashed !K and led a spade, East would go in with his ace and lead a fourth round of diamonds to promote West's !J. Instead of cashing !A, South tried a spade from the table first. But now East had another counter: he ducked! Now, no matter what South tried, West had to come to a trick with his jack of trumps sooner or later: if declarer plays another spade, he can never draw West's !J and, if he cashes !K first, East still has a spade entry with which to push through a fourth diamond.

South succeeds if he leads a spade to the king before touching clubs. With !K,10 still in dummy, it no longer matters whether East takes 4A or ducks; in either case South still has 2K as a quick entry to hand.

East-West game; dealer East

North

410 8 4 3

!A K 10

#10 5 2

2A Q 3

West East

4Q 9 6 5 4A J 7

!J 4 3 2 !none

#J 4 3 #A K Q 9 8

29 2 2J 10 7 6 5

South

4K 2

!Q 9 8 7 6 5

#7 6

2K 8 4

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in