Mr Scrooge (Le Bridgeur Magazine No.905)

Article written by Jérôme Rombaut and published in the French magazine Le Bridgeur No.905 (September/October 2016)

Losing a trick to win more (or make the right moves). That is what this deal played on Funbridge is all about this month.

Tip! If you have missed it, a new feature has become available on Funbridge since June 2016: commented tournaments.

Deal 30. Love All. You hold the hand below in North:

A 10 7 4 2   10 5  K 10 9 7  Q 8

The bidding proceeds as follows:

S	West	N	E
	PASS	PASS
	PASS		PASS

A 10 7 4 2  10 5  K 10 9 7  Q 8

Q  A 7 6 4  A Q  A 10 9 7 4 2

After the initial pass, it makes sense to bid 2♠ to ensure you don’t miss a possible game in that suit. South concludes with 3NT. Now take his seat.

West leads the ♥2, East follows with the queen. You duck once and again when East plays the king. West plays a third round of hearts…

What next?

You take with the heart ace by discarding a spade. Of course, now you have to set up the clubs, but be careful, you can’t afford to lose two.

If you play a low club to the 8 or queen, there is a risk that you make the wrong choice or the suit splits badly. The secret would be to be able to start from dummy and play the club queen!

Don’t be mean and don’t hesitate to play the diamond queen and take it with dummy’s king. Keep going with dummy’s club queen and go back to dummy again with the spade ace if needed to finesse the jack in case the queen has been taken by West’s king.

On the deal, East’s club king was bare and playing the clubs from South’s hand led to the defeat of the contract.

Those who made 3NT scored 88%. It was worth sacrificing the diamond queen!

This was the full deal:

A 10 7 4 2  10 5  K 10 9 7  Q 8

9 8 3  J 9 3 2  8 4  J 6 5 3

K J 6 5  K Q 8  J 6 5 3 2  K

Q  A 7 6 4  A Q  A 10 9 7 4 2