Daily Bridge Club
Secondary chances By FRANK STEWART Tribune Content Agency
This week’s deals treat a vital skill in dummy play: giving yourself every chance for your contract. Too often, players focus on the main chance and overlook a secondary chance.
In today’s deal, North’s rebid of three diamonds showed minimum values for a two-level response, but you had too much strength to stay out of game. You win the first spade and see that your main chance lies with dummy’s strong suit. The diamonds will produce six tricks if the suit breaks 3-3 or a defender has 10-x. Then you will make overtricks.
What if the diamonds don’t treat you well? EIGHT TRICKS
You have eight top tricks. For an extra chance, lead the A-K and a third club. When the clubs break evenly, you can win East’s spade return, overtake your jack of diamonds in dummy and try to run the diamonds. The suit fails to break, so you get only three diamond tricks, but dummy’s fourth club will provide your ninth trick.
Suits don’t always break as you want them to. Look for an extra chance. DAILY QUESTION You hold: ♠ AQ62 ♥ A8532 ♦ J ♣A K 4. You open one heart, your partner responds two clubs, you bid two spades and he tries 2NT. What do you say?
ANSWER: Your bid of two spades promised extra strength. Even so, to bid only three clubs now wouldn’t do your hand justice. Jump to four clubs. If you bid three clubs, partner may be concerned about the quality of your support for his long suit. He may stop at game when you can make slam. South dealer N-S vulnerable