Chapeau Dan!

Who said that only grand champions could write bridge articles? A few months ago, Funbridge launched a brand-new format of articles that allow talented players to share their expertise on the deals that inspire them the most. We have the pleasure of presenting you with a captivating article below that was written by one of the members of our community.

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Chapeau Dan!

The following deal occurred during a challenge against Dan Israeli (named “dan_ehh” on Funbridge), a fellow top Israeli bridge player and a tough opponent both on the national bridge scene and here in Funbridge challenges.

I was holding the above cards, West on my left opened 1♥. Partner doubled; East passed. My hand was perfect for a positive 2♠ fitted response which I made, over which West introduced a second suit with a 3♦ bid. Partner raised us to 4♠ doubled by East. Everybody passed out. West led the ♦A and Dummy was displayed.

At first sight, we seemed to hold complementary hands, the contract appeared to be achievable, but East’s double definitely meant that trumps were breaking badly. East followed the first trick with the 4 and West switched to the ♥K.

It was time to count and to set out a game plan. Given West’s two-suiter bidding and East’s double, I assumed that East held at least 4 trumps headed by the QJ10 and possibly 5 outstanding trumps, so I had at least 3 losers (the Ace of Diamonds and 2 or 3 trumps). If East held 4 trumps, a cross-ruff should work. Now I had to plan carefully, avoiding East overruffing Dummy too early, and also West ruffing a club. Could I do something if East held all 5 outstanding trumps? Apparently, it seemed that the QJ1053 of trumps over Dummy’s AK62 were probably worth 3 tricks.

I had this vague feeling that a 5-0 trump break could lead to an interesting end position including some trump over/under-ruffing, limiting East’s trump tricks to 2. However, I believed that this line of play required not to draw any trumps, taking the risk that West ruffed a club winner, and that I might lose the contract if trumps did break 4-1.

So, I had to make a decision: 4-1 or 5-0? I wasn’t sure about the 5-0 play. Planning it required some extra effort, so I easily convinced myself, with West’s free 3-level bid, that East might have doubled with just QJ10x of trumps. Besides, I worked it out a bit harder and reached the conclusion that a 5-0 break was of a much lower probability. Frankly, laziness had a lot to do with that decision.

So, after winning the heart switch, I played a trump from hand. West discarded, and I duly went 1 down. I was still not sure that a 5-0 distribution could have been dealt with and that my opponent would be able to find a way. I mentally scored the deal as a “potential loss”.

That “potential loss” became a reality as soon as the challenge came to an end. Dan, my opponent, managed to make 4♠ doubled! Let’s follow Dan’s play with open cards. The bidding sequence and the first 2 tricks were the same:

Then on Trick 3, Dan entered Dummy with a club and ruffed a diamond in hand. Then once again he played a club towards Dummy. That was the key play. If trumps break 4-1, West could now ruff that club, defeating the contract. Actually all followed and another diamond was ruffed in hand. The ♣Q was now played, West discarding a heart, then Dan played a heart and ruffed in Dummy. This was now the position:

Declarer already took 7 tricks and the AK of trumps would bring a total of 9. How could East’s massive trumps be prevented from making 3 tricks?

A diamond was played from Dummy. If East ruffed low, South simply overruffed and that would be his 10^th trick. In fact, East did ruff low and so the contract was made, but even if East had ruffed high, Declarer would have succeeded. He would discard the ♣J. Now East had to play a high trump, otherwise Declarer’s 9 would have won. Dummy would have won the trick and that would have been the position:

Then the remaining club would have had to be played from Dummy and East would have been checkmate. If he ruffed low, South would have overruffed with the 9, his 10th trick. If East had ruffed with his high J, again South’s 9 would have become his 10th trick. A neat “coup en passant”!

Chapeau Dan! Courageous play, great technique and a deserved 12 IMP gain!

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