A look at common card combos

The American Contract Bridge League ... intends to begin scheduling sectional and regional tournaments for late summer and fall.

With the continuing COVID-19 crisis, bridge players have had few opportunities to play cards in person in over a year.

For fans of the card game, we are offering a test of skills that pose questions about the strategies of playing in our weekly quiz.

We continue this week with the second installment in the current series of quizzes on the proper play of common card combinations. Each week, a specific card combination will be presented, and you are to determine the line of play that offers the best percentage chance of producing the desired result.

Today’s quiz: In the following two problems, you are given your own and the dummy’s holding in a particular suit and are to determine the best percentage play under the specified circumstances

1.You H KJ108532 Dummy H 976

As declarer in a heart contract, you lead the nine of hearts from dummy and your right-hand opponent follows with the four. Should you let the nine ride, or should you go up with the king?

2.You S A7653 Dummy S KJ842

As declarer in a spade contract, how would you initiate playing this combination?

Answers:

1. Many players confronted by this combination have a blind spot, believing it is simply a matter of guessing which opponent has the queen and which has the ace. If the queen is behind them, they reason, it is right to go up with the king; but if the player behind them has the ace, then it is right to finesse the nine.

The flaw in this reasoning is that it does not allow for a third pertinent case where the player in front of the declarer started with the AQ4. Going up with the king in this case will leave declarer with two losers in the suit when he began with only one. Thus, since finessing the nine wins against the Q4 or AQ4 in RHO’s hand, and loses only when he has the A4, it is clearly the correct percentage play and eliminates any need to flip a mental coin.

2. Although it may seem that it doesn’t matter whether you cash the ace or king first, the only correct play is to cash the ace first. Obviously if the opposing spades are divided 2-1, it will make no difference how you play the suit. But if the missing spades are divided 3-0, you can still avoid a loser in the suit if you play the ace first and your left-hand opponent has the Q109, as you can then take a finesse against LHO’s queen. But if you take the king first, the same is not true. Of course, if RHO has the Q109, it will not matter how you play the suit, since you will have to lose a trick no matter what you do. Playing the ace first thus guards against the one 3-0 division you can do something about, whereas playing the king first does not guard against either 3-0 division.

For those of you hoping for in-person play as the COVID-19 crisis begins to ease, the American Contract Bridge League recently advised its more than 3,000 affiliated bridge clubs that they can begin running duplicate games at their discretion. The organization also intends to begin scheduling sectional and regional tournaments for late summer and fall.

What remains to be seen is how many players will resume in-person playing at local bridge clubs and larger tournament venues in the near future.