A recurring theme in bridge books are when pointless (according the the authors anyway) actions by opponents reveal the distribution and honor location, thereby mapping the play for declarer. Sometimes it's the other way around. Here's a hand from match 1 against Enjoy Lavec. Freddan had:
AT6
KQT963
T
AQT
In 4th position after three passes he opened 1H (11-15 5+suit). I responded 3C, minisplinter, and he continued with 3S, cuebid. I bid 3NT showing some slaminterest and after 4C, I bid 4H. Should you make another try for slam? If so, how?
Freddan tried 4S and I jumped to 6H.
J7
A87542
Q852
J
AT6
KQT963
T
AQT
Low diamond lead to the ace and another, ruffed in hand. Trump extracted (West discarding a diamond; looks 5-3) and you have a choice whom to play for the king of clubs.
As no opposing bidding despite both high cards and distributions, with LHO having KJxxx in diamonds and a likely spade H, a regular club finesse looks like a safe bet as he'd taken action over 1H with that K as well. And so it proved.
It was a classic case of 'the dog that didn't bark'. Watch those dogs.
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2 comments:
Nice example of card reading. If you don't mind I will use also this hand for a lesson. Hands from "real life" with a history are always better than constructed examples.
At our table the K of diamonds was lead followed by a clubshift, which left declarer with a pure guess. He still got it right though.
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