Source: Poor Bridge
On Easter Monday, Mike Scanlon and I played in the Swiss Pairs at the Easter Festival of Bridge at the swanky Royal National Hotel in London. In an effort to randomise the field Mike had entered us (previous experience together: one board at an individual 12 months ago) in the A flight alongside the cream of British bridge. His plan obviously worked because we achieved a terrific 13th place out of 153, and this without playing particularly well. We did, however, manage to produce a defensive coup that required all of our natural talent, timing and technique in the field of poor bridge!
The Biltcliffe Coup
A Biltcliffe Coup has four main requirements:
- Opponents must be about to play in a part-score, but you protect in the pass-out seat
- Opponents must now bid to game.
- You must double this game.
- They make the doubled game.
If in addition it requires help from the defence to make the game, it suggests that a Poor Bridge is in attendance, and so it proved. My hand looks like this (dealer at green vs. red):
xxx
J
K10x
AJxxxx
I don’t fancy pre-empting in case Mike has spades, so the auction goes:
| West | North | East | South |
| Mike | Paul | ||
| Pass | Pass | ||
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 2 |
Pass | Pass |
| X | 3 |
4 |
4 |
| X | AP |
Obviously if oppo were about to play in partscore, then they must be at least one level too high now that they’re in game, and at red that means a double should net us 200 or 500 (possibly even more as it looks like Mike has some heart length from the look of my hand and the auction). However our opponents must have known about our ability to carve things up in defence…
Mike leads the 10, and this was the full deal:
| K x |
||
| A T 8 x |
||
| A Q J x x |
||
| x x |
||
| Q J x x |
x x x |
|
| K 9 x x |
J |
|
| x |
K T x |
|
| K T 9 x |
A J x x x x |
|
| A x x x |
||
| Q x x x |
||
| x x x x |
||
| Q |
Obviously it seems sensible to lead the singleton diamond from Mike’s hand – you can expect to get in with the king of hearts after the first or second round of trumps, and can then look for an entry into partner’s hand for a diamond ruff. Anyway, on the club lead I win the ace and play another round. Declarer ruffs, lays down the trump ace and plays a trump back to his queen; won by Mike who switches to a low diamond. Declarer finesses, I win and think about my return. Assuming, from the lack of a diamond lead, that Mike has more than one diamond, I hope that he has the ace of spades and lead a spade. [hmmm, declarer has shown a stiff club already, I rather doubt that partner’s presumed spade trick could ever go away on the diamonds: he’d need 7 hearts in hand! – Ed] That is curtains of course, as declarer can now draw trumps finessing the 8 and run the diamonds to claim the rest.
On a diamond lead, if declarer finesses I win the king, give partner a ruff, get in with A for a second ruff, and Mike has a good chance of making his HK as well (unless declarer psychically leads the Q pinning my jack) for two down and +500. If declarer wins the A immediately and plays ace and another trump then Mike wins, crosses to my A, I cash the K and give him a diamond ruff for +200.
-790 earned us the wonderful score of 2 matchpoints out of 152 – yet we still won the match!