FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

DECEPTIVE DEFENSE

“There’s a sucker reborn every minute.” — a bit of Buddhist wisdom?

One reason bridge is so compelling is that it has diverse elements — such as deceptive play. In today’s deal, South’s opening bid of four hearts bought the contract, and West led the queen of diamonds: king, ace, eight. West won the diamond return and exited with the ten of spades.

Declarer took dummy’s ace and led a trump — and East threw a club. West captured declarer’s king and led the seven of spades.

Club Ruff

South then had to guess how to return to his hand safely to draw trumps. He thought West might have no more spades, so South planned to return with a club ruff. But when he took the ace, West followed with the king! So South changed course: He ruffed a spade low, and West overruffed for down one. South was no sucker, just a victim of deceptive defense. He could have succeeded by cashing the A-K of spades and ace of clubs before he led a trump, but that play wasn’t clearly indicated.

Daily Question

You hold: ♠ AK52 ♥ 4 ♦ K 5 ♣ A J 8 7 4 3. You open one club, your partner responds one heart, you bid one spade and he tries two diamonds. You rebid three clubs, and partner raises to four clubs. What do you say?

Answer:

Your partner has a good hand. He wouldn’t bid three times and commit your side to a 10-trick contract otherwise. Since you have prime values, slam is likely. Cue-bid four diamonds. If partner next cue-bids four hearts, bid six clubs.

South dealer E-W vulnerable