The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
GIVE YOUR OPPONENT A LOSING OPTION
Rudyard Kipling said, “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.”
In this deal, depending upon South’s play, East will need feminine intuition or masculine self-assurance. What happens in four spades after West leads the heart queen?
In the second seat, after the dealer has passed, a pre-emptive opener used to require two of the top three or three of the top five honors in his suit because partner rated to have a decent hand. No longer.
Against a weak two or weak three, with a one-suiter, assume partner has 6 or 7 points and bid what you hope you can make — hence South’s four-spade overcall in this deal. (A takeout double shows at least two places — four-card suits — to play.)
How does East read his partner’s lead? As either a singleton queen or from queen-jack doubleton. But how does he know which it is?
That depends on South. If he plays his heart jack, East will know the queen is a singleton and will give his partner a ruff at trick two. Then the defenders can cash two club tricks to defeat the contract.
But if South smoothly plays his king, the card he is known to hold, East will not be sure. Looking at that dummy, he might well shift to his singleton diamond. That will be all the help that declarer needs. He draws two rounds of trumps, unblocks his remaining diamond honors, enters dummy with a trump and cashes the diamond jack. He wins 10 tricks from six spades and four diamonds.
POOCH CAFE: By Paul Gilligan
By Steve Moore