Some dummy plays in Bridge come about naturally, some are made with foresight while a few rare ones are executed with such an eye on the ball that they look like a magician's tricks. One classic example of such a play is our illustration for today where the following hand with the bidding went as under:-
The bidding proceeded as under:-
The opening lead from west was the obvious 4S which was an undisputed singleton. Let us now place the reader - you in south's seal and ask you to plan your play in 6C to see if you come anywhere near the declarer who executed the little slam with supreme confidence and assurance. A survey of the hand makes it clear that the declarer has 6 solid trump tricks, 4 red suit winners plus one spade ace to yield 11 tricks. All he needs is one more to make the little slam. With 3 clubs in the dummy, declarer was quite hopeful that if trumps break even, there would be no problem in making 12 tricks for a spade ruff in dummy would provide the necessary trick. Well, when all follow to the AC at trick 2 after AS is taken at trick 1, declarer keeps his fingers crossed to hope for clubs from both ends on his KC at trick 3. But in Bridge the cards can be cruel and at crucial times, they betray you. When east showed out on the KC, the declarer was in a quandary to find that elusive 12th trick. What options are left for the declarer now that the spade ruff is not possible.
Looking at the dummy every declarer would now be desperately hoping for the hearts in dummy to help him in the making of the little slam. An even heart break of 3-3 would be a real boon. But then those who know the odds of suits breaking would not be too hopeful of achieving a 3-3 break that had an odds percentage for breaking even of less than 40. A more likely distribution and one that had the maximum odds of breaking was a 4-2 division of hearts. If that were so could the declarer manage enough entries in dummy to ruff hearts twice in hand and then enjoy the remaining hearts for spade discards in hand. Say declarer after drawing trumps in 3 rounds, plays, AH, ruffs a heart in hand with 7 of clubs, goes into dummy with AD to ruff another heart in hand, he would have still no way to reach dummy to cash his winners. Does the situation look hopeless? Or is there a way out?
Let us now reveal how the declarer, Rosenberg with great foresight found the only way to make his slam. He reasoned that since the odds favoured a 4-2 break in hearts rather than an even 3-3 break, he needed to keep one outstanding trump in dummy and hope for a favorable distribution. So he cashed only 2 trumps and switched to hearts at trick 4. When the queen fell on the AK of hearts, Rosenberg ruffed the third heart with the jack of trumps while west discarded a diamond declarer went into the dummy with the KD and ruffed the 4th heart high again with the 10C, west per force discarding a diamond again. 8 tricks were taken leaving the following position of all 4 hands:
Now came the killing play. Can you see it? Yes, Rosenberg played his 7C to end play west who per force had to lead his diamonds for the dummy to take all the tricks. True, the declarer played superbly for west held 9, 6, 3 of trumps, a singleton spade, doubleton hearts and 7 diamonds headed by the 10. But the final challenge posed to my readers is: was there a way to find a killing defense? Yes, what if west could avoid the end play by throwing the higher trumps when declarer plays his trump honours, to avoid the end play. But wait a minute. If so, then declarer would still make the contract by conceding a spade and then over ruffing west with the 5 trumps in dummy. Is that all there is to it then or can the defense still prevail? Yes, you got it now. All west needs to keep is precisely the 6C - neither the 9C to avoid the end play, nor the 3C to get over ruffed. Such a situation makes Bridge such a fascinating game as it brings success or failure in more than one way. Some dummy plays in Bridge come about naturally, some are made with foresight while a few rare ones are executed with such an eye on the ball that they look like a magician's tricks. One classic example of such a play is our illustration for today where the following hand with the bidding went as under:-
The bidding proceeded as under:-
The opening lead from west was the obvious 4S which was an undisputed singleton.
Let us now place the reader - you in south's seal and ask you to plan your play in 6C to see if you come anywhere near the declarer who executed the little slam with supreme confidence and assurance. A survey of the hand makes it clear that the declarer has 6 solid trump tricks, 4 red suit winners plus one spade ace to yield 11 tricks. All he needs is one more to make the little slam. With 3 clubs in the dummy, declarer was quite hopeful that if trumps break even, there would be no problem in making 12 tricks for a spade ruff in dummy would provide the necessary trick. Well, when all follow to the AC at trick 2 after AS is taken at trick 1, declarer keeps his fingers crossed to hope for clubs from both ends on his KC at trick 3. But in Bridge the cards can be cruel and at crucial times, they betray you. When east showed out on the KC, the declarer was in a quandary to find that elusive 12th trick. What options are left for the declarer now that the spade ruff is not possible.
Looking at the dummy every declarer would now be desperately hoping for the hearts in dummy to help him in the making of the little slam. An even heart break of 3-3 would be a real boon. But then those who know the odds of suits breaking would not be too hopeful of achieving a 3-3 break that had an odds percentage for breaking even of less than 40.
A more likely distribution and one that had the maximum odds of breaking was a 4-2 division of hearts. If that were so could the declarer manage enough entries in dummy to ruff hearts twice in hand and then enjoy the remaining hearts for spade discards in hand. Say declarer after drawing trumps in 3 rounds, plays, AH, ruffs a heart in hand with 7 of clubs, goes into dummy with AD to ruff another heart in hand, he would have still no way to reach dummy to cash his winners. Does the situation look hopeless? Or is there a way out?
Let us now reveal how the declarer, Rosenberg with great foresight found the only way to make his slam. He reasoned that since the odds favoured a 4-2 break in hearts rather than an even 3-3 break, he needed to keep one outstanding trump in dummy and hope for a favorable distribution. So he cashed only 2 trumps and switched to hearts at trick 4. When the queen fell on the AK of hearts, Rosenberg ruffed the third heart with the jack of trumps while west discarded a diamond declarer went into the dummy with the KD and ruffed the 4th heart high again with the 10C, west per force discarding a diamond again. 8 tricks were taken leaving the following position of all 4 hands:
Now came the killing play. Can you see it? Yes, Rosenberg played his 7C to end play west who per force had to lead his diamonds for the dummy to take all the tricks.
True, the declarer played superbly for west held 9, 6, 3 of trumps, a singleton spade, doubleton hearts and 7 diamonds headed by the 10. But the final challenge posed to my readers is: was there a way to find a killing defense? Yes, what if west could avoid the end play by throwing the higher trumps when declarer plays his trump honours, to avoid the end play. But wait a minute. If so, then declarer would still make the contract by conceding a spade and then over ruffing west with the 5 trumps in dummy. Is that all there is to it then or can the defense still prevail? Yes, you got it now. All west needs to keep is precisely the 6C - neither the 9C to avoid the end play, nor the 3C to get over ruffed. Such a situation makes Bridge such a fascinating game as it brings success or failure in more than one way.
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North South
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5 2 A 9 7 6 3
A K 9 8 5 3 4
A K 7
5 4 2 A K Q J 10 7
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W N E S
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- 1H 1S 2C
P 2H P 2S
P 3C P 4NT
P 5H P 6C
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Nort West East South
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5 - K Q J 9 7 6
9 8 - - -
K 10 9 8 6 Q J -
5 9 - Q 7
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