Bridge - The Scotsman 08/08/2012

Published on 08/08/2012 03:54

Wednesday’s puzzle...

When one partner knows more than the other in defence he may use a discard as an opportunity to share his knowledge.

Here South opened a strong no-trump and North raised to game, hoping his clubs would prove useful. West led his fourth highest spade. Declarer tried the nine from dummy, covered with the ten and won with a deceptive king. But West was not fooled: his partner could not have another spade higher than the ten – he would play third hand high rather than offer declarer a cheap trick with the jack. Since there was no future in spades, West wanted partner to switch to hearts if he got on lead – how could he share that information with partner?

Declarer played on clubs, and East ducked the first round as a matter of technique. On the second club West had the chance to make a discard, and he carefully chose the jack of spades. This meant that he did not want a spade return – why discard a winner, or potential winner? The high spade was a suit preference signal, asking for the higher of the two possible switches, a heart. If he wanted a diamond switch, he would throw his smallest remaining spade.

East obediently switched to a heart, but not just any heart – since he had no chance of regaining the lead, he led the jack of hearts to ensure that his partner made four heart tricks – a lower card would allow declarer to duck, retaining his king as a stopper.