The Best Chance


PARD (dummy)
S K J 8 7
H K 3
D -
C A J 9 6		 Suppose I ruff the diamond continuation in dummy. Where are my 10 tricks going to come from?
  • If I choose to pull trumps then I will clear all but one of them. When I eventually try to cash a spade, righty will ruff and cash out two high diamonds for down one.
  • Alternatively, I could play on spades right after ruffing. But then righty will ruff and return a trump. This will leave me one trick short no matter how well I play.
  • Another possibility is to go after 3 diamond ruffs, 5 heart tricks, 1 club and 1 spade. I would have to ruff this diamond, play the CA and ruff a club and then ruff a diamond. The catch will be scoring my spade trick without surrendering two trump tricks. I don't think it can be done.
It appears that I am in a bad position, but because of my DQ98, I have an extra chance. If I let righty win this trick, then he's still going to have to tap the dummy to beat me and there is a chance that I might guess the diamonds right. I am giving up nothing by doing this because the opponents were always entitled to one diamond trick.
ME
S 6 5
H Q 10 9 7
D Q 9 8
C 5

I pitch a club and righty makes the diamond position easy for me. He wins the DK (pretty much marking him with the DA) and then continues the DA. I ruff this with the HK, finesse in trumps and claim 10 tricks conceding the HJ.

That's +420 for the good guys!

Here is the entire hand.

Now the fighting begins. Righty starts by asking me an innocent question. "You had a void in clubs?" I tell him I had only one and then he turns to partner. "I gave you a high club. Why didn't you return a club?" I assure her that their defence was the best possible and I describe the line that would have allowed me to make 10 tricks on a club continuation or a spade continuation.

She nods confirmation and we play the next hand...

After the dinner break, she comes to tell me that her husband had misdefended the hand! "If he had ruffed that first spade, then we could have beaten it." I tell her I would think about it later, because we had more bridge to play.

 PARD (dummy)
S K J 8 7 4
H A K 3 2
D -
C A J 9 6
LEFTY
S A 10 9 3 2
H -
D 10 7 6 2
C Q 10 4 3		 RIGHTY
S -
H J 8 6 4
D A K J 4 3
C K 8 7 2
ME
S Q 6 5
H Q 10 9 7 5
D Q 9 8 5
C 5

Well, what do you think?
Suppose that I ruffed the opening lead, played the HA and switched to the S4, ruffed by righty.
Is there any defence which will beat 4H from here?

The Fallible Genius - a chronicle by Brad Bart
February 9, 1998