Yesterday one idea; today a variation

FRANK-N-ERNEST®

GRIZZWELLS®

BIG NATE®

ARLO & JANIS®

ZITS®

Edward Hoagland, who is best known for his nature and travel essays, wrote, “Country people do not behave as if they think life is short; they live on the principle that it is long, and savor variations of the kind best appreciated if most days are the same.”

As we are all aware, there are variations to almost all declarer-play and defensive rules. In this deal, West leads the heart nine against three no-trump. After declarer plays low from the board, how should East analyze the deal?

Yesterday, we looked at a deal in which East had not to win trick one, but to force declarer immediately to burn up one of his two stoppers in that suit. Is this the same?

East was understandably worried about dummy’s diamond suit. Before playing to trick one, he tried to anticipate the future play. He realized that if he ducked the first trick to South’s heart queen, he would get in with his diamond trick and could drive out the heart ace, but it would be too late. Declarer would run for home with, in this layout, two overtricks.

Was there a more-promising defense?

How about winning the first trick and shifting to a club? If West had some goodies there, the defenders would have a chance to take one heart, one diamond and three clubs. As you can see, that was exactly how the play panned out.

East and West were happy, but North was unhappy. He wanted to know why his partner hadn’t taken the first trick with dummy’s heart ace and established diamonds.