A talented player and one of a kind

Master of Bridge Psychology (Master Point Press) is written by Jeppe Juhl from Denmark with the assistance of Peter Fredin, who is the subject of the book.Fredin, who comes from Sweden, is one of a kind, a very imaginative player who occasionally rubs people the wrong way. Many years ago, he told me that the analysis was very bad in the daily bulletins I was writing. He mentioned a deal in which he had been involved. I told him that what I had written was accurate and that I had run the deal through Deep Finesse (a double-dummy analysis programme). “Oh.” To exhibit Fredin’s bridge ability, look at this four-heart deal. In the auction, North’s three-spade bid asked for a spade stopper for no-trump, and South’s pass denied one. Knowing from the auction that his partner had the spade king, Fredin led a low spade, won the second trick with the spade ace and shifted to the club three, trying to cut declarer off from the dummy. South expected West to have the heart queen for his vulnerable overcall. Then, if hearts were 3-3, the contract would cruise home. So, declarer played a heart to his ace and cashed the heart king. Fredin smoothly played his queen! Now it seemed as if diamonds were 3-3, West’s hand having 5=2=3=3 distribution. South took his top diamonds and led a third diamond. West unexpectedly discarded a club. Declarer cashed a high club, but East ruffed the next top club, promoting West’s heart 10, and East’s diamond queen also took a trick for down one.