| Deal of the Week (Oct 06, 2006) Click here for Archives |
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Problem: The Auction: West North East South 1♣ 1♠ dbl 2♠ 3♠ dbl pass pass 5♣ all pass Declarer wins your ♠K lead with the Ace (partner playing the 2) and draws trumps in 3 rounds, partner discarding a spade. Declarer now plays a heart to the Ace, noticing the fall of your Jack. He plays a heart from dummy, and plays low from hand after considerable thought. Winning perforce with the ♥K, what do you play next? Solution: Declarer has 6 clubs. Partner's ♠2 was a count signal showing odd number, so declarer has 2 spades (also, if declarer has a singleton spade, the defense has very little prospect). It looks as if declarer has Qxx in hearts and has read the heart position accurately. Which leaves declarer with 2 diamonds. If he has the ♦K, he would be claiming by now. Therefore, partner has the ♦K. It may seem safe to exit with a spade, and let partner score the ♦K eventually. The "safe" spade return is not so safe after all, declarer can succeed by cashing the remaining two trumps, executing a criss-cross squeeze against your partner. Watch what happens:
Declarer plays his last club, discarding a diamond from dummy. East has no good answer : If he discards a heart, declarer will cash the ♥Q, play a diamond to dummy's Ace, and cash the last heart. If partner discards a diamond instead, declarer will play a diamond to dummy's Ace, cross over to the ♥ and cash the last diamond.
You can prevent the criss-cross squeeze by switching to a diamond, removing dummy's entry. Now declarer has no recourse, and the contract has to fail. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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North-South bid the hand poorly, missing the cold 3NT which has 9 top tricks. Also, ducking the second round of hearts is a peculiar play; playing the ♥Q is successful on a lot of straightforward layouts where a squeeze is not required. Also, you would play the Jack from a wide variety of holdings, the KJ doubleton is just one of them. Finally, ducking the heart is a poor play even if you do have the ♥K, as a diamond switch by you defeats the contract (and no squeeze exists if you hold the ♦K).
Bridge Baron's Line of Play Bridge Baron deal No : N4855-61389-02780-09787-84878-65240 |
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