|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What will you say now? Answer
If South had passed, you would have responded 2S. This would show 8-10 points, allowing partner to advance if he had values to spare. Your best bid now, when South has called the spades, is a penalty double. Some players find it amusing to make a spoof bid in spades when they have a fairly weak hand with heart support. You can expose such psychic bids with a double. 1NT, instead, would show around 7-9 points and a good heart stopper.
David Bird — Knight Features
|
||
|
|
||
How
will you play 4S when West leads the king of hearts? You have four
possible losers. In clubs you have a potential finesse against the
king. In hearts you have the chance of ruffing a loser in the dummy.
You win the heart lead with the ace and play the ace of trumps, noting
the 3-0 break. It will not now the possible to draw all the trumps
before attempting a heart ruff. If hearts break 6-2, you will be
overruffed by East. What can be done? The winning technique is known
as ‘trading ruffs’. You must aim to swap a risky heart ruff for a
safe club ruff. At Trick 3, you lead a second round of hearts. Let’s
assume that East wins with the jack of hearts and switches to a club.
You rise with the ace of clubs and lead your last heart. Rather than
ruff in dummy, risking an overruff, you discard dummy’s last club.
Even if East can win a diamond switch and play a second round of
trumps, you will still have one trump left in dummy with which to ruff
your queen of clubs. That will give you ten tricks. The double-dummy
defence to the shade game is to lead a low diamond to the queen and
for East to then switch to a club. Five Hearts is cold for East-West
but Five Clubs can be beaten if the defenders lead spades at every
opportunity
