Hasty play at bridge has often been the sole reason of lots of bridge players defeat in a tight contract. Therefore, every bridge book on table play warns us to be careful and not hasty in the opening moves of our contract. The reason is not too far fetched to understand human vulnerability also plays a part as the human mind is tuned to net in the maximum tricks it can possibly conceive at bridge.
But there is always more to it than meets the eye bridge is in the last resort all about timing and once you slip in it, it is a lost cause. Very rarely do you get a chance to trip back in the proper groove and that can come mostly through defensive errors, which again are inevitable at times because of the same factor of human vulnerability. After all humans play bridge and they are prone to error.
Today's illustration is of a bridge hand that demands proper timing and table presence as well. For the problem is as much a problem of logic as of bridge timing. Let us first give you the north south hands and the bidding to test your table play. The opening lead is the deuce of hearts. Put yourself in the south seat and try to make 4S.
Let us begin by first counting our winners. We have 6 trump winners, 2 heart winners and a club winner totalling 9, which leaves us with only one extra trick to be developed. On the face of it there seems to be no problem as you can ruff out one heart for your tenth trick. Easy it sounds. But do you spot the snag in it? Well let us begin again by counting our losers. We have 2 in diamonds, and apparently 2 in hearts, unless we can manage to get one heart ruffed in dummy.
This is not a difficult hand to play if you put on your thinking cap and concentrate on the bidding and opening lead. Well, lets see what you make of the opening lead of deuce of heart. Yes, true his partner had earlier called with 2H and as such, west is obliged to lead hearts as the best recourse for the defence. What else do you fathom from the lead and the clear and present danger it poses for your contract? Yes, obviously the deuce of heart cannot be from a three carder looking to the minimum 5 card holding in hearts that east's overcall suggests. Can it be from a doubleton then? No obviously not since the deuce is the lowest card. The obvious singleton is, therefore, staring at you. So how do you go about? You obviously can't draw trumps since you plan to get your extra trick from a heart ruff. So that leaves you with little choice but to try to cash your heart winners followed by a heart ruff. But with west holding a singleton, your second heart honour will surely be ruffed, the diamonds cashed and a trump knocked out to leave you in the same quandary of 4 losers with one heart honour ruffed and one more heart to give along with the inevitable 2 diamonds losers.
As I said above, bridge play is all about timing. If you play hastily without thinking of the immediate danger threatening you, you would fail. Bridge players get excited in counting their winners not realising at times the unexpected loser awaiting. Table presence demands you work logically to find the answer. Since trump extraction is ruled out, and the second heart honour move a senseless one looking to the danger of immediate ruff, the only alternate logically speaking, is to play a low heart at trick 2. This is a sure fire road to success, leaving you with the sure ruff as well as keeping your heart honour safe.
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North South
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Q10 AKJ984
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6410754 AK75
A9843 32
6
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The bidding:
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West North East South
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- - - 1S
P 1NT 2H 3S
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P 4S ALL PASS
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