Problem:
The Auction:
West North East South
2♦1 pass 3♣2
all pass
1 - short diamonds, 11-15 HCP, length in other three suits
2 - sign-off
This week's deal is like a chess problem in the focus is on the end game. West leads the ♣A trying to cut down dummy's ruffing power, and manages to crash his partner's king. A club is led to East's queen. The next few tricks are as follows:
Trick 3 - East plays a diamond to dummy's ace
Trick 4 - ♠K to East's ♠A
Trick 5 - ♦J to the K, pitching a heart from dummy
Trick 6 - spade to the 10 and East's
queen
Trick 7 - ♦10 led, ruffed with the ♣J in dummy.
Trick 8 - ♠J cashed, discarding a heart from hand.
The task on hand is to take the rest of the tricks.
Solution:
East has shown up with 12 points so far, so West must certainly have the ♥K. Also, West is marked with the remaining club, as well as the ♦Q. The winning play is to continue with a spade from dummy. If East does not follow, you ruff, take a heart finesse, cash the ♥A, and crossruff the last two tricks.
The real deal is when East follows with the ♠9, you know the remaining cards to be distributed as follows:
| ♠ 8 | |
| ♥ AQJ | |
| ♦ - | |
| ♣ 9 | |
| ♠ - |
 |
♠ 9 |
| ♥ K87 |
♥ 10952 |
| ♦ Q |
♦ - |
| ♣ 7 |
♣ - |
| ♠ - |
| ♥ 4 |
| ♦ 98 |
| ♣ 106 |
If you ruff with the ♣6, West will overruff with the ♣7. You should therefore ruff with the ♣10, which has the effect of catching West in a rare backwash squeeze. The backwash squeeze is an anti-positional squeeze, in which one of the suits is trumps. If West discards a diamond, your diamonds become established, and you keep playing diamonds through West (if he ruffs, dummy will overruff). If West discards a heart, you can take a heart finesse, and cash the ♥A dropping West's king. Finally, if West underruffs with the ♣7, you can take a heart finesse and crossruff the rest of the tricks.
|
| ♠ KJ108 | |
| ♥ AQJ6 | |
| ♦ A | |
| ♣ J954 | |
| ♠ 743 |
|
♠ AQ92 |
| ♥ K87 |
♥ 10952 |
| ♦ Q732 |
♦ J106 |
| ♣ A87 |
♣ KQ |
| ♠ 65 |
| ♥ 43 |
| ♦ K9854 |
| ♣ 10632 |
|
Analysis:
Bridge Baron's double dummy solver points out that at trick four, a simpler line would have been to play the ♣9 to the ten, and take a heart finesse. Now, you can go about establishing a spade trick, and another heart finesse can be taken when you are in hand next. But a backwash squeeze is simply more fun!
Bridge Baron's Line of Play
Bridge Baron takes the simpler line described in the double dummy analysis above, and makes the contract. When we gave Bridge Baron the last five-card position, Bridge Baron executed the backwash squeeze and took all the remaining tricks.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 2♣ by North-South.
Bridge Baron deal No : N5333-51338-15047-38029-04909-26256
You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :
Deal Of The Week
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