Win at Bridge by Alan Sontag

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Herald-Journal – 17 Feb 1982 por Alan Sontag y Oswald Jacoby

In this hand from Kelsey’s «Advanced Play at Bridge» West opens the king of hearts againt South’s four spade contract. East plays the deuce and West shifts to the queen of diamonds. This rubber bridge hand is one of the general type in which declarer should find out about what is going to happen in the side suits before going after trumps.

Opening lead: heart King

He has one sure loser in each red suit, one possible club loser and from zero to two trump losers, with one loser the most likely. He has a perfect safety play to guard against two trump losers. He should use this safety play if the club finesse works. If the club finesse fails he must hope to avoid any trump losers. The best play for that is to lay down the ace and try to drop a singleton king. Therefore, at trick two it is up to South to win the diamond with dummy’s king and take the club finesse.

It works and now he is down to two red suit losers and can afford one trump loser. Hence, he cashes his ace of clubs, ruffs a club in dummy and leads the lowest trump. If East shows out he plays his ace and leads toward dummy’s queen. When East follows he plays his eight or 10 of trumps. He doesn’t mind losing to a singleton jack or king. He have given up an overtrick, but he will have guarded against the actual 3-0 trump break.