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Bridge by Steve Becker

The signal is probably the single most valuable weapon available to the defense, but, like any other weapon, there is a proper time and place for its use. Take this case where a signal proved useless, partly because of a good play by declarer and partly because one defender could not obey the command of the other.

West led the queen of clubs, and East signaled for a club continuation by playing the eight. Declarer correctly ducked the queen in order to hamper defensive communications (had South won the first trick, he would surely have gone down).

West had no more clubs to lead and had no effective alternative move. In practice, he shifted to a low heart, but declarer won in dummy and led the king of diamonds. East took the ace and returned the ten of clubs, but he was fighting a losing battle. South won with the jack, led another diamond, took the next club with the ace and finished with 10 tricks.

East could have won the battle had he allowed for the possibility that West’s queen of clubs might be a singleton by overtaking the queen with the king. East could then have continued clubs, dislodging one of South’s club stoppers. Whenever declarer got around to leading diamonds, East would win, force out South’s remaining club stopper and would thus win the race to set up his clubs before South could set up dummy’s diamonds.

East should realize from the bidding that declarer might well have the A-J-x or A-J-x-x of clubs. Whatever the case, overtaking the queen guarantees establishment of the clubs before the diamonds. East should have signaled, all right, but with his highest club, the king.

Tomorrow: Bidding quiz.

Bridge by Steve Becker

Pinochle is a crazy, mixed-up game — at least to anyone not familiar with it. Not only does the deck contain 48 cards instead of 52, but there are no cards lower than a nine. What’s more, there are two queens of spades, two aces of hearts, and, in fact, every card has a twin –an identical twin, no less.

And, to add to the confusion, the cards rank in order from the ace down to the nine, just as in bridge, but with one exception — the ten is higher than the king!

Now, my friend John, an inveterate pinochle player who never had a kind word to say about bridge — though he understood the game — was at the club one day and there weren’t enough players for a pinochle game. So he consented to play bridge just for kicks.

On the very first deal, he picked up the South hand and got to six spades. John is a pretty good card player and saw right away that he couldn’t make 12 tricks even though he got a club lead and ruffed East’s ace. There simply was no entry to dummy to cash the clubs.

But John thought that if he ran all his trumps, the defenders might blunder and let him make the contract. So he cashed the ace of spades, continued with the ten and was about to play the king when East rudely interrupted and said, “It’s my lead.” You see, John had forgotten he was playing bridge, not pinochle, and that the ten was not second in rank to the ace.

But his inadvertent mistake proved to be just what the doctor ordered. After winning the ten with the jack, East was forced to return a club or lead from one of his kings, so John wound up making the slam.

Nowadays, John doesn’t play much pinochle anymore. You just can’t tear him away from the bridge table!

Tomorrow: Wrong signal.

Bridge by Steve Becker

This deal was played in a match between France and Belgium some years ago. It illustrates how a declarer who pays close attention to tiny details can reap a substantial reward for his efforts.

West led the king of clubs and continued with the ace, whereupon declarer (Georges Theron of France) made the key play of ruffing with the seven instead of the four. Theron then cashed the A-K of hearts and led a low heart, planning to ruff low in dummy and lead the queen of diamonds through East’s king.

But West ruffed the third round of hearts with the eight, forcing dummy to overruff with the queen. However, the farseeing Theron was able to take this development in stride. He led the six of diamonds from dummy and played the four from his hand after East followed low. Another trump lead from dummy then trapped East’s king.

So, Theron made five diamonds doubled by virtue of his thoughtful unblocking play at trick two. Had he ruffed the second club with the four instead of the seven, he would later have been unable to lead diamonds twice from dummy to pick up East’s king.

It takes rare insight for a declarer to recognize the importance of trumping with the seven instead of the four at trick two, but it is little things like this that make the difference between the greats of the game and everyone else.

Tomorrow: A tactical maneuver.

Bridge by Steve Becker

Bidding is a vocal exercise in which partners exchange messages verbally about their respective holdings in an effort to arrive at the best contract. Defensive play, by contrast, is a silent exercise wherein the defenders try to portray their holdings to each other through the play of their cards in order to score all the tricks to which they are entitled.

Consider this deal, which features good defense. South reached four spades as shown, and West led the five of hearts. When dummy came down, East realized that the contract would almost certainly be made unless West held the doubleton ace of clubs. In that case, the correct defense after winning the first heart would be to lead a low club to West’s ace, win the club return with the king and play a third club for West to ruff.

But East also realized that West could have the A-Q or A-J of clubs and might win the club return at trick two with the queen or jack, unwittingly blocking the suit and handing declarer the contract.

So, in an effort to forestall this possibility, East won the opening heart lead with the ace instead of the queen, which would have been more normal. He was trying to sell West the idea that declarer had the king of hearts, and in that way influence West to think that East had to have the king of clubs to justify his opening bid.

The scheme worked out exactly as planned. When East returned the deuce of clubs at trick two, West contributed his share by winning the trick with the ace and returning the queen. East then overtook the queen with the king and returned the seven for West to ruff, and the contract went down one.

Tomorrow: Bidding quiz.

Bridge by Steve Becker

Win the queen of clubs with the king, discarding a diamond, and continue with the ace of clubs. Then:

1. If East ruffs, overruff, cash the ace of spades, and lead the queen through West’s king. West must play the king of spades on this trick or the next one, whereupon you ruff in dummy and lead a trump to the ten to score the rest of the tricks.

2. If East discards a spade on the ace of clubs, trump the ace, play the A-Q of spades as before, and take a trump finesse. Then cash your remaining spade or spades, cross to dummy with a diamond to the king and ruff another club, reducing your hand to the A-K-J of trump and nine of diamonds. Now play a diamond to the ace, lead anything at all from dummy and East’s Q-7-6 of trump succumb to your A-K-J.

3. If East discards a diamond on the ace of clubs, discard your nine of spades and take a trump finesse. Then return to dummy with a diamond and repeat the trump finesse. After you cash the A-K of trump, this becomes the position:

North

[S] 5

[D] A 7

[C] 8 5 4

West East

[S] K 10 [S] 8 6 4 3 2

[D] Q 10 [D] J

[C] J 10

South

[S] A Q J

[H] 4 3

[D] 9

When you now play the four of hearts, West can discard the ten of clubs as dummy also discards a club, but when you next play the three of hearts, West finds himself in dire straits. He is caught in a three-suit squeeze, and no matter which suit he discards, you make the rest of the tricks.

Tomorrow: The bidding points the way.

Bridge by Steve Becker

It is easier to sink a 2-foot putt in golf than it is to hole a 10-footer, and in bridge it is easier to make some contracts than it is to make some others. For a hand difficult to make at the table, when the lie of the opponents’ cards at the outset is unknown, we cite this one.

West led the K-A and another spade. East took the queen and returned the ten of clubs. Declarer won with the ace, led a heart to the ace and another heart back to the king. When West showed out, declarer’s goose was cooked. No matter how he continued, he had to lose a trump trick, and he finished down one.

After examining the East-West hands, it is, of course, easy to see that South could have made the contract by finessing the ten of hearts on the second trump lead. However, this is hindsight and can hardly be justified without peeking at the adverse cards.

Nevertheless, South could — and should — have made the contract. After East’s club return at trick four, declarer’s only real concern is the possible loss of a trump trick. This can occur only if the opposing hearts are divided 4-1 (or 5-0). He should therefore take whatever steps are necessary to overcome a potential bad break.

If West has the J-x-x-x of hearts, nothing can be done; but if East has them, a trump coup could be arranged. So, after taking the club return with the ace, South leads a diamond to the ace and ruffs a diamond. He then cashes the king of hearts and continues with a heart to the ace, revealing the trump situation.

This is where the precautions taken earlier pay dividends. Another diamond is ruffed, reducing declarer to the Q-10 of hearts and Q-J of clubs. The Q-K of clubs are then cashed. When a diamond is next led from dummy, East’s J-9 of hearts succumb to South’s Q-10, and declarer scores the last two tricks.

Tomorrow: Double-dummy problem.

Bridge by Steve Becker

This deal occurred in a regional pair championship in Los Angeles many years ago. The hand was played at many tables, of course, but our story concerns itself solely with the table where Mrs. Kelsey Petterson held the South cards.

When she first looked at her extraordinary hand, Mrs. Petterson wondered whether it would be better to open the bidding with two spades (strong in those days) or two clubs when it was her turn to bid. However, the problem became altogether academic when Mrs. Petterson thought she heard the player on her right open the bidding with seven diamonds!

Undaunted by this totally unexpected development, Mrs. Petterson bid seven spades. After two passes, East doubled, and, after three passes, West led the jack of hearts.

There was not much to the play. Declarer ruffed the heart and drew four rounds of trump, the jack obligingly falling on the second round. When she then cashed the A-K of clubs, the missing queen also fell, so the upshot was that she made seven spades doubled for a score of 2,470 points.

East-West were understandably nonplussed by this dreadful result. They realized they would get a very bad score on the deal, especially since East had elected to double the grand slam, giving North-South an optimal result that was unlikely to be duplicated at the other tables.

As the East-West pair were disconsolately putting their cards back into the duplicate board, Mrs. Petterson turned to her right-hand opponent and asked, “May I please see what an opening seven diamond bid looks like?”

“I opened the bidding with one diamond,” East sadly replied.

Tomorrow: How to capture a knave.

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