Puzzle 7F45 (Mar 97) by Richard Pavlicek

Valuable Discard


You won’t win any glamor awards for this auction. Many players would consider 4 S to be forcing, but partner made a good decision to pass. It may come as a shock to your normal ways, but you came to rest in a makable contract — at least in theory.

It is imperative for the defense to get a tap going. Assume West makes the effective lead of a low heart, a waste of trickiness perhaps on a bridge puzzle since it won’t fool anyone.

4 S by South

S 6 5 4
H K 4 3 2
D 5 4 3 2
C 3 2
S J 10
H A 9 8 7
D 9 8 7
C K J 5 4		[W - E]S K 9 8 7
H Q J 10 6 5
D 6
C 9 8 7
Lead: H 7S A Q 3 2
H —
D A K Q J 10
C A Q 10 6

West

Pass
Pass
All Pass		North

2 D
4 D		East

Pass
Pass		South
2 C
3 D
4 S

The rest is up to you. Can you find the way to make 4 S against any defense?

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Solution

You had better grab the H K at trick one, but then what? To succeed you really have to violate two important principles of card-play technique. On the H K you must throw a good diamond — I guess you could call this a “valuable discard.” Next you must use dummy’s precious entry to take a losing club finesse instead of a winning spade finesse.

Assume West takes your C Q with the king (optionally, you could finesse the 10, or win the C A and lead the queen or 10) and he returns a heart (best) which you ruff. Next cash a diamond (optional) and the C A, then lead the C 10 to blot out East’s nine and establish your C 6. Assume West covers and you ruff in dummy.

Could this be the time to take the spade finesse? No! Not yet! You are dead meat if you lead a spade. Lead a diamond from dummy; assume East ruffs and returns another heart which you ruff to leave this position:

S 6 5
H 4
D 5 4
C —
S J 10
H A
D 9
C 5		[W - E]S K 9 8
H Q J
D —
C —
S A Q
H —
D K Q
C 6

Lead the good C 6 and discard dummy’s last heart. If East ruffs he must give you the rest of the tricks, either with a spade return or a heart allowing you to reach dummy to finesse spades and claim. If East instead throws a heart, simply lead a diamond to reach the same conclusion.

The essence of the play was to get rid of one of dummy’s hearts so the defenders could not tap your hand three times. This could only be done by preserving all your clubs and building the slow trick.

Trap: If a diamond is cashed before you give West a club trick, the defenders can prevail. West returns a diamond and East discards a club, which effectively locks declarer out of dummy, and East eventually will win three trump tricks.

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Copyright © 1997 Richard Pavlicek. All rights reserved.