Playing the players

One of Unlucky Louie’s daughters is in college, studying to be a social worker.

“She’s taking a course in psychology,” Louie said. “She told me the instructor was lecturing on Pavlov’s dogs, and the class was laughing about it. And then the bell rang, and they all went to lunch.” The psychological aspect of bridge may be less significant than in a game such as poker. On an internet site such as Bridge Base Online, your opponents may be thousands of miles away, not sitting at your table where their mannerisms or tempo may be revealing. Still, there are opportunities to “play the players.”

In today’s deal from a team match, both Souths played at four spades after North – reasonably in my opinion – raised South’s response of one spade to two spades. Both Wests led a low heart. East took the queen and ace and led a third heart, and South’s jack won.

At one table, declarer led the queen of trumps next. West’s king covered, and declarer took dummy’s ace and returned a trump to his jack, hoping for a normal 3-2 break. But West discarded, and East was sure of a trump trick. Down one.

At the other table, South found a better approach. At Trick Four, he led the ten of trumps: king, ace, deuce. Now, any West might have covered the queen of trumps, but no West would have covered the ten – unless he had no choice. So when South returned a second trump from dummy and East played the six – a higher spot would have made it easy for declarer – South played the seven. He drew trumps and claimed the contract.

North dealer

N-S vulnerable