The Evening News – Oct 27, 1971 by Ira Corn Jr
The most authoritative work on the game or bridge is the “Official Encyclopedia of Bridge.” The encyclopedia is authorized by The American Contract Bridge League and prepared by it’s editorial staff. It covers every aspect of the game and is a must for the serious bridge player.
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K J 10 2
Q J 8
| West | North | East | South |
1 |
Double | 3 |
3 |
| The End | |||
Today’s hand is taken from the Encyclopedia. It describes a rare end-game situation where declarer, offered a ruff and discard, must ruff in both hands to make the hand. The hand was originally presented by Jean Besse of Switzerland.
East’s bid of three clubs over North’s double is known as a barricade bid. It promises good trumps, useful distribution and limited high cards. South refused to be shut out and his three-diamond bid bought the contract.
West led the heart deuce and dummy’s eight forced East’s king. Declarer led a diamond to dummy and played the king when West played low. Declarer cashed two high hearts and then exited with a diamond. West cashed two diamonds and played a low club. Declarer guessed correctly and played dummy’s king. He then played another club to West’s ace. This was the position:
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West made the best play of a club (a spade would make things easy). At this point, if he discards any spade and ruffs in his hand, he cannot make the hand. West can cover any spade lead and declarer will not be able to get to dummy
without losing two tricks.
The only winning play is for declarer to ruff the club in dummy find to overruff with his queen. Deelarer then leads the spade nine and West is helpless. If West ducks his spade ace, he will take only one spade trick. If he takes the spade ace, he must either lead spades for a finesse, or lead clubs to give declarer another entry for the spade finesse.