Selsdon Bridge Club – November 2016 Newsletter

Here is an interesting hand that came up last week.  How do you make 4♠ on this one? Dealer East all vulnerable.

♠ J6

♥ K105

♦ K763

♣ J842

South plays in 4♠ after East opened 1♣. A heart lead would have been fatal for South but West led the 6♣. East won the Ace, cashed the King and continued with the Queen which was ruffed by South. How does South avoid two losers in Hearts?

♠ 85

♥ QJ64

♦ 10952

♣ 653

♠  743

♥ A972

♦ J4

♣ AKQ10

♠ AKQ1092

♥ 83

♦ AQ8

♣ 97

This is the opportunity to use an unusual type of squeeze known as the vice. The vice describes the pressure upon a defender who holds two cards of equal rank that are needed to protect his partner’s holding. The commonest example is QJ protecting partner’s Ace.

After winning the third trick South should cash the A♠ and cross to dummy using the J♠. Next South ruffs the fourth club – this play is essential to set up the end position. Another round of trumps throwing a heart from dummy and two top diamonds from hand leaves the following position:

♠ -

♥ K10

♦ K7

♣ -

On the last spade West is squeezed. If West throws a diamond declarer throws a heart from dummy and makes the contract by winning two more diamond tricks. If West throws a heart declarer throws 7♦ from dummy and leads a heart to the Queen and King – East has to concede the last two tricks to dummy.

It should be clear now that if South had not ruffed out East’s fourth club the end play could not have been brought about.

♠ -

♥ QJ

♦ 109

♣

♠  -

♥ A972

♦ -

♣ -

♠ K

♥ 83

♦ 8

♣ -

Declarer needs to know what to do at the end – it is true that, in theory, the diamonds might have been breaking and West might have thrown the J♥ when not holding the Queen; fortunately not many people play as well as that!

News of recent  success by members of Selsdon Bridge club

You may have seen the results of the Surrey One day Green Pointed Pairs held on Saturday 24^th September.  If not you will not be aware that two of our members came equal first.  Christine Dyer and David Dawson were =1^st with a score of 106VP’s out of 140 after winning all seven of their matches.  Well done to them!

Reminder to enter the Selsdon Bridge Club Pairs Championship

Selsdon Bridge Club’s Pairs Championship takes place on the two Thursdays at the end of November, the 17^th and 24^th. Entry is only available to members of the Club. Please put your entry into the booking section of the website – this helps the director to plan the event. Please be aware that there might be a later than usual finish time if it is necessary to play 27 boards on either/or both Thursdays.

Now for this month’s competition.

A prize of a free entry voucher for one evening at Selsdon Bridge Club, valued at £3, will be awarded to the Club member who submits the best answer in the opinion of the judges:

You find yourself in the East seat on this board. It is Love all and the dealer is West

♠ Q52

♥ 10863

♦ AQ5

♣ K85

West leads 2♣ and you see dummy. Declarer plays low from dummy.  How do you plan the defence and why?

♠ A6

♥ 742

♦ 3

♣A1097643

Answer to last month’s competition (actually, in this case the best answer to the above).

Quite obviously your partner’s lead is a singleton so there is little point in doing other than take the ace. Many club players would automatically return a club to give partner a ruff – that will give you three tricks, but where is the vital fourth trick coming from?

Partner can barely have the K♠ so the only chance seems to be that he has a heart trick, but that will have to be the king for declarer will probably be able to discard one losing heart on the K♣. If partner has got this vital card there is no particular need for an immediate heart switch.

Here is the complete hand:

♠ Q52

♥ 10863

♦ AQ5

♣ K85

The key feature of this hand is that you have first round trump control so that, provided partner has two spades you will be able to give him his ruff later and you can put the extra time this affords to excellent advantage. Provided that partner has no more than seven diamonds you will be able to score a ruff yourself but not unless you have a way to put partner on lead when you have no diamonds left. If you return a club at trick two there will be no way back to partner when you take A♠ but if you return your singleton diamond immediately you will have no problem.

♠ 43

♥ Q95

♦ KJ109872

♣ 2

♠  A6

♥ 742

♦ 3

♣ A1097643

♠ KJ10987

♥ AKJ

♦ 64

♣ QJ

Declarer will win the diamond return and play a trump. You hop up with the ace and fire back a club and collect your vital diamond ruff in return. The key to the defence is to credit partner with the absolute minimum to beat the contract – all he needs is two trumps and no more than seven diamonds.

The winner of the prize voucher for the above response is Fred Bloggs – well done!