Bridge - The Scotsman 09/06/12

Published on 09/06/2012 00:00

YOU should never relax as declarer, even when your contract looks easy. Can you spot a danger here?

Partner’s 2NT response showed four-card support and the values to raise to at least 3S, but you were not tempted to investigate slam with this aceless collection. North leads the queen of diamonds, causing no real concern. South wins the ace and switches to the five of hearts on which you play the three and North the queen. How do you play?

The actual declarer won the ace of hearts and crossed to the king of clubs to discard a heart on the king of diamonds before playing the king of trumps. North was Alfredo Versace of Italy, and he grabbed the ace of spades and played a heart to his partner’s king. Monica Cuzzi played a third heart, and North ruffed in front of dummy with the jack of spades for one down. Where did declarer go wrong?

After discarding a heart from dummy on the king of diamonds declarer might ruff his last diamond, discard a heart from hand on the ace of clubs, and lead spades from dummy. That would be a better approach, but it would not help him here, where a third heart from South promotes the jack of spades whether he ruffs low or high. The solution is quite simple: declarer should hold up in hearts, allowing North to win his queen. He can play another heart, but now declarer wins the ace, takes his discard and plays a spade. The difference is that North has no hearts left, so South cannot get on lead to play the killing third round.

The hold-up in a suit contract is not used as often as in no-trumps, but whenever you have Axx opposite three small you should consider winning the second round in case the suit breaks 5-2 and the long hand has no entry.