June 22, 1941
In bridge as in every other activity, perfect technique, tho highly desirable, is not the ultima thule. After a player has learned all there is to know about card combinations, percentage plays, safety-plays, and so on, there is still the matter of partner’s and opponents’ psychology to be reckoned with.
Robert Darvas, writing in the Bridge World magazine, describes two hands that would not mean much to a mere technician. I quote: «In most hands the play follows normal lines. The defense will usually lead thru strength up to weakness, try to force declarer, avoiding giving dummy a ruff and so forth. Whenever a defender departs from the conventional pattern, he has done some original thinking. Your job is then to find out what he had in mind and, when possible, to turn this information to advantage.
For example: South dealer. East-West vulnerable.
| West | North | East | South |
1 |
|||
| Pass | Pass | 2 |
2 |
2 |
Pass | 4 |
All Pass |
North leads the seven of diamonds and South takes the king. South now cashes the ace of diamonds, on which North drops the four. At this point South thinks for a second or two, cashes the ace of spades, and then leads the nine of spades. Declarer (West) has already lost three tricks and must avoid losing a trump trick if he is to make his contract. The average declarer would in with dummy’s queen of spades and enter his hand by ruffing a second round of clubs. Then he would try a heart finesse. A slightly better player would see that two heart finesses might be necessary. He would win the second round of spades with the king in order to take the trump finesse at once. This would make it easier for him to regain the lead, without risk of an over-ruff, for a second trump finesse. But a really clever declarer would have none of all this. The minute North plays the four of diamonds on the second trick, a good West player would be fingering the eight of hearts in expectation of another diamond lead. For the bidding, no less than the play of the four of diamonds, establishes the fact that North has no more diamonds left and that South must he aware of that fact.
And when South departs from the routine play by taking the ace of spades and returning a spade, West should look for the reason for South’s departure from the normal defense. His reasoning should go something like this: South must have every reason to believe that his partner cannot over-ruff. Therefore, South must have the king of hearts. But why doesn’t South lead a diamond’ anyway? Obviously, he is afraid to let me know that his partner cannot over ruff.
Therefore, the king of hearts is blank, for otherwise he wouldn’t care if I know about his king of trumps. So a player who took the trouble, to think with the brains of his oppenents would win the second round of spades in the dummy and promptly lay down the ace of trumps. This would drop the singleton king and fulfill the contract. Another opportunity for a Psychological coup arises whenever an opponent has no clear-cut line of play, in such a case it is your job to give him a clear-cut line—a losing one. A typical case: South dealer. Neither side vulnerable.
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 |
|||
| 2 |
Pass | 3 |
Pass |
| 3 |
Pass | 3NT | Double |
| 4 |
Double | All Pass |
North led the five of clubs and South won with the king. South next led the ace of clubs and West ruffed. West now entered dummy with the king of hearts and led the jack of clubs, South playing low. And this is the critical point! It may be taken for granted from the bidding that West must lose a trump trick. He has already lost a club and should expect to lose two diamonds. Therefore, the contract should be defeated. Yet there is one chance left—the deception of North. North obviously has the queen of clubs; and if he wins this trick and does not return a diamond, the contract can be made. Note also that if North wins this trick, he can have no clear-cut idea of whether a spade or a diamond lead will produce a better result. It is therefore West’s job to give North a clear idea. West must discard the eight of spades on the jack of clubs!. Now put yourself in North’s place when he wins with the queen of clubs.
You know that he can have nothing but low cards in spades; and South’s double of three no trump should locate both high diamonds for you. So North probably has nothing but the trump queen and must choose between a spade and a diamond return. Can he tell what declarer is up to? The chances are overwhelming that North will immediately return a spade to prevent West from getting rid of another losing spade on dummy’s remaining club.
And now West wins with the ace of spades, cashes the ace of trumps and overtakes the queen of spades with dummy’s king. Now declarer can make the 10 of clubs and the jack of spades, and discard his losing diamonds. Note, however, that if West discards a diamond on the jack of clubs, North will promptly lead that suit and declarer will fail to make his contract. And if West makes no attempt at all to get a discard, he will automatically lose two diamonds, a trump and a club.»