Bridge is not a game for the weaklings. Too often, cowed down by too many apprehensions afraid to lead away from kings and aces, filled with fear, those who want to play it safe find themselves at the bottom of the ladder. Suppose you held the following hand as south and opened 2 hearts as under:
The following bidding takes place after the 2H opening:
You are on lead. What should be your best shot in defending 6S? The question that is haunting you is whether your hand will win 2 heart tricks or not. The answer should not be too difficult to comprehend if you analyse the opponent's bidding. They have resorted to Blackwood ace asking and then pushed on to 6S. Do you think they would do so if they were staring at 2 losers in hearts? Certainly not. It is almost certain that west who took the initiative is likely to hold a singleton heart. Does that mean that you give up on the contract? No - there is a flicker of hope if you are not weakling at Bridge. Can you spot the line of play? Of course the potential of a club ruff in your hand provided partner has an immediate entry before trumps are knocked out by the declarer. All you need to do is to find an entry into partner's hand. Remember partner did bid 3H. So if he has the QH - Bingo! give him the heart entry and get a club ruff to down the contract with a defence that would be termed scintillating. So be bold at Bridge and under lead you AK of hearts keeping your fingers crossed. But wait a minute. There is one tiny detail to be taken care of. How do you guarantee that partner will return a club after taking the first trick with the QH. Again the answer is simple - the suit preference signal that is often misused. Your opening lead should be the unmistakable deuce of hearts. When your partner wins surprisingly he would understand the massage of your 2H lead risking the heart top honours as a clear shift for clubs.
As I said Bridge is a game not for the weaklings. The same even applies in bidding if you are discreet enough to know the thin line that separate the over bidders from the thoughtful bidders. Let say you have a hand as under:
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54, AQ54, KJ94, QJ
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A normal opening hand of 13 HCPs - but what if your RHO opens 1NT. Now what? Do you dare enter the bidding or go for a quite know how by passing first. On the other hand suppose on your RHOs 1NT opening you held;
A straight landy 2C or 2D cappaletti for majors would be automatic on just 7HCPs. The weaklings at Bridge might still pass. But let me end with a golden rule as a guideline that would help you in bidding when such situations arise. All you have to do is to count a loser for every missing A,K or Q assuming 3 cards or more. A doubleton counts 2 losers, a singleton 1 and a void none. Now the first hand has 2 losers in spades and diamonds, 2 in clubs and 1 in hearts for a total of 7. The other hand has 2 losers each in spades and hearts and 1 each in diamonds and clubs for a total of 6. The rule says that you add the number of cards in your 2 longest suits and subtract from it the number of losers. If the sum result is 0 or 1, you pass: if it is 2+ you get into the bidding. So on the first hand from 8 cards of your 2 longest suits, subtracting 7 losers gives you 1 while on the other out of 11 cards of the 2 longest suits, subtracting 6 losers gives you +5. So bid on, as sometimes it pays to be daring.
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W N E S
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- - - 2S
DBL 3H 4S P
4NT P 5H P
6S ALL PASS
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4 3 2
A K J 8 7 2
J 9 8 7
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A7654
K109876
4
7
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