Mari Ryman’s Card Play Problems

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Mari Ryman, Catarina Midskog, Katrine Bertheau y Jenny Ryman

5th WORLD JUNIOR CAMP Vargesztes, Hungria Julio 2003

Mari Ryman

Here are three more hands from Mari’s class. Solutions attached below.

Mari Ryman manos de Carteo

Hand 1. All you have to do is to avoid losing two diamonds and two clubs, but what you can’t do, for example is strip off hearts and draw trumps, then lead a club to the queen. West will win and play a diamond through, and East will score his diamondQ and play a second club through. If you duck the first club the process repeats itself – if you have to guess what is going on, you won’t get it right!

The solution is very simple and rather elegant. After drawing trumps and eliminating hearts, cash the club ace and lead a low club (from either hand).The worst that can happen to you is that West wins and plays a diamond through; right? East wins the diamondQ and leads a club through – but at this point in the hand unless West has shown out (in which case you’ll know what to do) there are only two clubs out, a low one and the clubK. If East plays a low club through you cover it, and if West produces the clubK your 13th club is good so the second diamond loser goes away.

Hand 2. As usual after drawing trumps and eliminating hearts, you just have to hold your losers to one in the minor suits. Cash one top diamond then the ace and king of clubs. If West has the club length, throw him in with the fourth club to lead diamonds for you. If East has club length that will not work – he can always get out with a diamond. So you have a choice of approaches; take the diamond finesse, or play diamondK then diamondJ, hoping West will have to win and be endplayed to give you a ruff and discard. Since East has the club length,West is the favourite to hold the diamondQ, so play diamonds from the top and hope for the endplay.

Hand 3. This deal features a simple club to add to your bag of tricks. If you win the opening lead and advance the clubQ, both defenders are sure to duck. Now whether you lead a club to the club10 or clubK you won’t guess right.With only one entry to dummy you won’t score a second club trick. Result: misery! All you need is two club tricks; so lead initially to the club10. If it holds, or loses to the clubA you have two club tricks easily enough. If it loses to the clubJ, you can regain the lead and overtake the clubQ with the clubK at your next turn, and that way you can ensure two club tricks for your side. (Compare a situation where with KJx in hand and A10x in dummy and a shortage of entries to dummy, you begin by running the jack. If it loses to the queen at least you can overtake the king next time and build two entries to dummy for sure.