Focus on West (Le Bridgeur Magazine n°895 – June 2015)

Article written by Jérôme Rombaut and published in the French magazine Le Bridgeur n°895 on 15 June 2015.

Discover a deal from Funbridge where you have to play accurately to fare well!

You hold South hand:

A 9  A K Q 9 3  K 9  J 10 6 2

 
The bidding proceeds as follows (pairs tournament):

S	W	N	E

Dummy places his hand face up the table after the spade queen lead:

10 5 3  J 8 7 6 5 2  10 4   A 5

A 9  A K Q 9 3  K 9  J 10 6 2

 
The fact that East holds the spade king (the queen lead promises the jack and denies the king) doesn’t bode well. After West’s overcall in spades (vulnerable), it is very likely that he holds the diamond ace and club king. Defeat is in the air… But appearances can be deceptive and you still have a say.

East can’t afford to cover the spade queen with the king (you would establish the 10). He thus follows low and you duck to break the opponents’ communication. Leader drops a low spade to your ace, you play the heart 9 to the jack (drawing both trumps from your opponents’ hands) and spade 10 ruffed.

Now follow with club to the ace and club. If East takes the trick, he will return diamond and you won’t be able to make the contract. Suppose that West takes the trick with the king. If he originally held the king-second, the die is cast (he might have unblocked it but why wouldn’t your hand be A9 AKQ93 Q62 Q106?). If West plays a low club, discard a diamond, hoping that he also holds the queen. And too bad if East failed to drop his queen-third on the second round of the suit, a big mistake that Funbridge will not make in defence…

The full deal was:

10 5 3  J 8 7 6 5 2  10 4   A 5

Q J 8 6 2  4  A J 5  K Q 7 4

K 7 4  10  Q 8 7 6 3 2  9 8 3

A 9  A K Q 9 3  K 9  J 10 6 2