Bridge is all about control. Too often we see declarers failing in their contract by losing control of the hand. By this is meant either falling short in trumps or in the timing of the play whereby in the race to establish winners, the declarer loses the initiative and thereby loses control of the hand. At times the defenders force him into a helpless position with no hope for revival. dummy play in Bridge is essentially a battle for supremacy with each side battling the odds to emerge triumphant. They employ numerous techniques and gadgets to gain the upper hand. But this requires both foresight and alertness without which one can squander the initial advantage gained. Sometimes in complacency the defense slips and at times in the moment of blind spot the declarer errs and thus the ultimate result rests on the side that acquires the final control.
Let us illustrate by example. Suppose you are in the South seat and reach a contract of 4H with the opening lead from west being the KC to the following dummy and south hand:
A 2 club opening by south gets a 2D response on which south bids 2H and north quietly raises to 4H with his three card support. The quiet opponents suddenly spring to life with the lead of the KC. As south how do you view your prospects.
Apparently you are not looking at any loser besides 2 club losers with the possibility of a loser in trumps in case they break no worse than 4-1. Of course the little snag still remains as you can visualize the situation of a fourth loser cropping up in case the diamond suit does not break even at 3-3. So as south what considerations do you need to take care of for the making of your 4H contract. To continue with the game, the defense took up club tricks with K & Q with west continuing a third club which forces you to ruff. The odds break in diamonds is certainly not even enough to your liking with a percentage of 3-3 break being about 36% while a 4-2 break has a much bigger percentage. If only hearts would behave as per the odds 3-2, your chances would perk up. So at trick 4 and 5 when you cash your 2 high hearts, you find west showing out on the second which means east surely is going to score 1 heart trick. This leads to the all important chance of a favorable diamond break on which depends perhaps the fate of the contract. Is that the only chance or can you make the contract even if diamonds split 4-2 provided east has an at least 2 diamonds? Can you now see through the tangled web?
Suppose the west east hands are as under:After discovering the bad trump break (4-1), all you need to do is to cash 2 high diamonds. What next? Yes, a spade to dummy's ace and a low diamond from dummy. Here lies east's dilemma. If he ruffs the diamond lead, play the 7 and thank God that east has ruffed what was in fact his partner's trick thereby placing you with the control after drawing the last trump.
In the alternate, if east discards on the diamond lead from dummy, you can win your high diamond and then lead the 7D to ruff it with dummy's last trump. As you can see, east will be able to win only one more trick whether he over ruffs or not. As a last resort, suppose east had followed suit to the diamond lead from dummy, then of course you could easily win the diamond high and ruff the 7D in dummy if necessary.
The key to the success of the contract lay in not leading the third diamond from hand. This subtlety of sensing the danger before hand is not in the domain of the average play.
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North South
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A 8 6 3 K 2
Q75 A K Q 6 5
9 5 2 A K Q 7
10 6 5 8 4
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West East
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J 9 5 4 Q 10 7
2 J 10 9 8
J 10 8 6 4 3
K Q J 3 A 9 7 2
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