Stamford Advocate

DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

- Frank Stewart

“Simple Saturday” columns focus on improving basic technique and developing logical thinking.

Combining chances is a common theme in declarer play.

If you have various chances for your contract, arrange to try them all. Moreover, try them in the best order, so that if one chance fails, you still have others.

At today’s slam, South won the club opening lead, drew trumps and tried a diamond finesse with his queen. He went down swiftly when West took the king and led a heart to East’s ace.

South gave himself only one chance when he had two. After he draws trumps, he runs the clubs to discard a heart from dummy, leads a trump to dummy and returns a heart. He gets his 12th trick when East has the ace. If West had the ace of hearts, South would still be alive. He could ruff West’s heart return in dummy and try the diamond finesse.

Incidental­ly, if West held both the ace of hearts and the king of diamonds, South could still make six spades. Do you see how? DAILY QUESTION You hold: S 4 3 H Q 10 7 6 5 D K 7 4 3 2 C 4. Neither side vulnerable. Your partner opens one heart. The next player passes. What do you say?

ANSWER: Bidding has two goals: to find your best contract and to prevent your opponents from finding theirs. Bid four hearts. If your partner has a good hand, he might make the contract. If he doesn’t, the opponents might have made a high-level contract if you had made it easier for them to bid.

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