PRE-EMPTS DO NOT ALWAYS WORK WELL
Barbara G. Harris said, “An autobiography is a preemptive strike against biographers.”
Bridge players love to make a pre-emptive bid because it often strikes uncertainty into the minds of the opponents. But sometimes, when partner has a good hand, it can derail the pre-emptor’s side — as I described yesterday.
This deal was in Andy Robson’s excellent column in The Times newspaper. To make South the declarer today, the deal has been rotated by 180 degrees.
At the first table in a team match, North opened three clubs and went down one after East found the amazing heart-queen lead.
The auction at the second table is given. North sensibly passed as dealer. The rest of the auction was natural, except that North’s three-club advance indicated some tolerance for spades. (If he just had a long, strong club suit,
CLOSE TO HOME:
he would have bid it on the first round.) Then South, anticipating that East would have the heart ace, made an excellent four-spade rebid.
What should West have led?
On autopilot, West chose the heart two. East won with his ace and shifted to the spade jack, but it was too late. South won with dummy’s queen, played a heart to his king and ruffed his last heart on the board. Back to hand with a diamond, declarer drew trumps and claimed. He lost only one heart and two diamonds.
West was left to rue his lack of a spade lead, which would have stopped the heart ruff and killed the contract.