Las Vegas 2014: Thinking Bridge by Eddie Kantar

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Eddie Kantar Clase

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Source: ACBL

Sunday July 26th, 2014

Las vegas 2014 Thinking Bridge 10

Opening lead: 4.

Bidding commentary: Looks normal. 4 is certainly reasonable with the South hand. West’s double, for penalty, also looks reasonable with
two-plus defensive tricks facing an opening bidder.

Play commentary: After East takes the first two heart tricks and plays a third high heart, ruff with the J, the higher equal to induce an overruff if West has a likely Q 9 x x.

Defensive commentary: If South ruffs the third heart with the J, discard! You now have two spade winners. Your 9 is a big card. If you decline to overruff the J, your 9 will eventually become a trick.

As West, you must be very careful about overruffing an honor with another honor when you have length in the suit and a high spot card like the 8 or 9. Those cards are frequently promoted to tricks.

The important points:

1: When ruffing with an honor in a situation where you are likely to be overruffed, ruff with the highest equal honor, the one most likely to induce an overruff.

2. When given a chance to overruff an honor with an honor, be sure you wouldn’t have a second trump trick if you didn’t overruff!