The Dispatch – 17 Abr 2003
If there is one gift experts possess that sets them apart from the average player, it is judgment. Add that to sound technique and it confers a considerable advantage.
Both Vulnerable, West deals
Salida: K
The bidding was sound all around. Despite having a minimum opening bid in terms of point count, West’s distribution gave the combined holding considerable trick-taking ability and the leap to four hearts was good tactics. Similarly, North would not be shut out of the auction with two aces and five-card support for the suit in which partner overcalled, and bid four spades as a two-way shot.
It might make or it could be a cheap sacrifice against four hearts.
West collected the king and ace of clubs and shifted to a heart, won perforce in the closed hand. The problem was to hold the diamond losers to one. This was complicated by the fact that West’s opening bid and jump to game in hearts almost certainly marked that defender with the king.
Declarer found a neat way out of the impasse. South drew two rounds of trumps, ending in dummy. The ace of hearts was cashed for a diamond discard and a heart ruffed high stripped that suit from both declarer’s hand and dummy. A trump to the ten provided the entry to the table to lead the eight of diamonds.
East covered deceptively with the jack, but declarer was not to be deflected from his reading of the position. East was allowed to hold the trick. Since a heart or club would allow a ruff-sluff, permitting South to discard a diamond from either hand while ruffing in the other, East was forced to return a low diamond. Declarer followed low and the contract was home when West, as expected, produced the king.