Dummy play has different levels for different players depending on their limitations in vision and comprehension of the contract as a whole. Those who seek out a fool proof line of play than others which is more safe and nearer to success are termed the above average players of bridge.
Of course the fact that all players are human can never be ruled out and therefore the vulnerability to err is always on the cards. Those who make fewer errors usually come out at the apex with a high success rate.
But in every field of human activity, there are exceptional people who come out shining as classic examples of human endeavour at its very best. In bridge such exceptional streaks in dummy play guide them the status of an expert whose line hardly falters, for their definition is the one who seeks a fool proof line of success in the making of the contract he is placed in.
Today's illustration is that of an exceptional play of a simple hand which can often he missed out at the table in the heat of the moment. Let us begin with giving you the north south hands first along with the bidding and place you in the hot seat of the declarer with the challenging contract of 4S that south bid in one stroke as his opening bid after two passes. The opening lead is the queen of hearts form west with the following dummy coming down.
As south, how do you proceed to make 4S? Of course the line of play that you adopt would determine the level of your bridge as far as dummy play is concerned. This is in fact, not a difficult hand at all involving squeeze, complex end play or other technical bridge play like the scissors coup etc. Let us first analyse where our possible losers, can be. If trumps break 2-2, there is absolutely no problem for then your losers are only the diamond ace and at most the two remaining clubs. The problems spins out when trumps do not break and are split 3-1 with one of the defender holding the Q of spades. How do you cope up with that?
Well, you can argue that if trumps are adverse, their our choices are also shrunk down to the only hope for the diamond suit to give us the break with a defender taking up the diamond ace early enough or giving you the latitude of reaching the fourth diamond in dummy to be able to discard due of the inevitable club loser on it. Suppose west holds a doubleton diamond ace and also the queen of spades. Then he would not like to be stuck on an end play by ducking the first diamond and getting stuck with the ace of diamonds and the queen of spades to open up the club suit himself and thereby yield two club tricks and the contract to the defender. So most likely in that case he would take the AD immediately, play out the QS and exit with heart.
But does that really help the defender. For it gives access to the dummy to run the fourth successful diamond for the eventual club discard. But in reality west held 3 cards to the ace of diamonds and if you adopted the obvious line of play by playing out 2 trumps first and then the diamonds you would be in no way better off for west would duck the first two diamonds, cash his winners in spade and diamonds and exit with a heart leaving you with the same two club inevitable losers. For the full hands were as under:
Do you see now the fool proof safe dummy play that would place you in the exceptional class? Yes, find a safe reserve entry in dummy for the diamonds to run. Take the spade length advantage. After ruffing the opening lead, cash only the ace of spades and then simply play out the diamonds. The worst that otherwise could happen even if diamonds were short with a defender would be a ruff. Then winning any return would give you access to the winning diamonds with the entry of KS. The contract is cold if you are patient and not lured by the trump suit.
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North South
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K6 AJ98532
9754 QJ2
K1085 AJ6
1043
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North West East South
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K6 Q106 7 AJ98532
9752 QJ108 AK632 -
K1085 A76 943 QJ2
1043 K85 Q972 AJ6
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