BRIDgE

Judiciously used, the holdup play can be an indispensable aid to effective card play, by the offense or the defense, but too much of a good thing can be, well, too much of a good thing!

In a club pairs game, South played in three notrump after North used a transfer sequence to offer a choice of games.

Low club to the Queen and ace followed by a spade to the King. Having been at least semi-schooled in the art of the holdup play, East played low on the first round of spades. Declarer shifted course by playing a heart to the Queen before reverting to spades: low to the Queen and ???

Thinking that if one holdup play was good, two might be even better, East withheld his ace once more. Not a good idea as South used the donated dummy entry to take a second heart finesse, and when the King fell under the ace, he actually had an overtrick to best most of the field by one whole trick — in a contract that should have been readily defeated!

Addendum to holdup play lesson that this East must have missed: when declarer attacks an otherwise entryless suit, a defender should hang on to his ace until the trick in which declarer is playing his last card in the suit in focus.

West’s count signals (four then seven) on the first two rounds plus the bidding mark South with but two spades so that East can win the second spade, and South will be left wondering how he should have known to play in four spades!