Thursday 12 November 2009
They don’t always work – but imaginative coups are one of the great pleasures of the game.
By far the most enjoyable part of bridge is outwitting an opponent by some imaginative coup. Of course, these don’t always work. Take today’s deal from rubber bridge. Most of you will be familiar with the correct technical play in this trump suit:
You cash the A, and West drops the J. Now it is right to cross to dummy and run the 10, playing West for an original holding of singleton J rather than QJ doubleton, because he might have played the Q from that. In fact, the second-round finesse will work about twice as often as playing for the drop. But suppose you cash the A and it is East rather than West who plays the J? Game all, dealer South.
South opened a strong no trump, North bid two clubs (Stayman), South bid two spades and North, who was known for a sporting rather than a scientific approach to the game, bid six spades. West led a heart, and declarer contemplated the potential loss of a trick in each black suit. He won the opening lead with dummy’s A and he led a spade to East’s J and his own A. What would you do next?
Of course, the only legitimate chance for the contract is to cash the other high spade, hoping for an original 2-2 division of the suit. But South knew that such a distribution was a two-to-one underdog once East had played the J. And he also knew what West did not – that he actually held a five-card spade suit, rather than the four-card suit his response to Stayman had promised. So at the third trick, he calmly led a low spade from his hand. Pity poor West, who imagined declarer with this hand:
If South really did have that, it would be fatal for West to play the queen of spades – his partner would overtake with the king, having begun with KJ doubleton. Unable to imagine that South would deliberately sacrifice his genuine chance for the contract in favour of a psychological swindle, West played low. South drew trumps, conceded a club, and made his slam.