Bridge - The Scotsman 15/06/12

Published on 15/06/2012 00:00

A GENUINE Yarborough is very rare, which is why the Earl made lots of money from betting against it, but this one popped up at the Senior Teams in Poznan last year.

The auction started slowly, but when North decided to show his minor two-suiter South suddenly found himself at the helm in 3D, surprisingly undoubled.

West had read a book on opening leads, so started with a trump to dummy’s ace. Declarer would have liked to lead a club from hand, but the rules do not allow that, so he led a low club from dummy instead. East was playing upside down count signals, so West won the trick with his queen. He persevered with trump, taken in dummy to lead ace and another club, establishing the suit. West was not about to change his defensive game plan, and played a third trump to dummy. Declarer could now reach hand with the nine of diamonds, but that would leave him without trump control, so he cashed two clubs, discarding hearts, and exited with the queen of hearts. East, who had felt all along that heart lead would be a better attack, took the king and played a second heart. Declarer ruffed in hand, discarding a spade, and led a spade towards the KJ to land his contract.

While it is true that earlier heart leads would establish a diamond trick for the defenders, East should not have taken his eye off the ball. If he returns a spade, ducked to dummy, declarer is forced to concede two spades to West.