Deceptive play diverts East from winning hand

Royal Gazette Staff

Created: Oct 30, 2010 11:00 AM

Next week at the Bridge Club sees the Bermuda National Pairs Championship which will be held over two sessions on Monday, November 1 and Friday, November 5 … this is likely to attract a good field so watch this space for the results.

The Bridge World Series took place in Philadelphia over the first two weeks of October and was, by all accounts, a huge success . One of the events that took place at the Championships was the IBPA (International Bridge Press Association) Awards Dinner where awards are presented in a variety of categories.

This hand won the Rose Cliff Declarer Play of the Year. The hand was reported by my good friend Ron Klinger in The Sydney Morning Herald and the declarer in question was Michael Courtney who also lives in Sydney. On the hand Courtney found an ingenious deceptive play to divert East from the winning play … the hand came up in a stakes rubber bridge game.

Love All. Dealer North.

♠103

♥64

♦AQ10875

♣532

♠A98652 ♠J7

♥J107 ♥AK853

♦3 ♦K64

♣Q76 ♣J104

♠KQ4

♥Q92

♦J92

♣AK98

At the table North opened with a modern style 3♦ bid and South closed the bidding with 3NT.

West led the spade six to the ten ,jack and king. Courtney now took the losing Diamond finesse and East thought it might be an idea to investigate the heart suit before returning a spade, so he led the heart king. West signalled with the heart Jack to deny the queen.

Courtney had already worked out from the lead of the six of spades (fourth best) that there were five higher spades than the six in the other three hands and since he could only see three East must have started with two, meaning he had another spade … not good news . So when East continued with the heart Ace he followed smoothly, and desperately, with the queen! West, unaware of what was happening continued his unblock by playing the ten …

Completely taken in, East continued with a third heart and to his surprise South's nine won the trick! Suddenly a contract which in normal circumstances would have gone down three made easily … well done! Yes, East-West could have done better but if Courtney had just woodenly followed with two low hearts there was no chance for them to go wrong.

You will of course ask yourself whether the play of the ten of spades at trick one was correct … it probably is, but on this hand playing low makes the hand unbeatable, even if East plays the 7! Try it … all interesting stuff, but isn't it always in this game!

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Deceptive play diverts East from winning hand