Bridge

Game all; dealer West

This is the tale of the six tricks that got away. It cannot be often that ten tricks are available to the defenders against a freely bid game, arrived at by a sensible auction. But that was the case on this hand for the match between Taiwan and Argentina in the 1977 Bermuda Bowl World Championships.

Santamarina for Argentina opened One Heart and his partner, Attaguile, responded Two Clubs. West rebid 2NT and, on the strength of his long club suit, East raised to Three No-Trumps.

North led 7, dummy played low and South played the jack, won by West’s king. Declarer cashed dummy’s two top clubs and when the queen didn’t fall, led a low heart to the queen, taken by North’s king, who returned 6. If South rises with the ace he can cash four spade tricks, and if he plays Q the defence can take four diamond tricks too, plus the club queen which, along with K already in the bag puts declarer six down.

However, South ducked the queen of spades, placing West with K10x. ( It would appear that a different lead-style from four small may have solved the problem. Nowadays many players prefer to lead second-highest followed by the lowest, and this method might well have removed the ambiguity).

Santamarina gratefully took his spade trick. He still had only eight winners but when he cashed his hearts, the defenders, with the wrong picture of each other’s hands discarded indifferently, and the K became his ninth trick.

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