You can't believe everything you read

I recently acquired a pile of old bridge magazines, and came across this hand in a report by Pietro Forquet on the Italian Team Championships, in The Bridge World for July 1968:

E-W game
Dealer South

• 106
• 107
• AK7654
• 976

• KQ98
• 43
• J10983
• A8

N

W

E

S

• J7643
• 9865
• 2
• K32

• A5
• AKQJ2
• Q
• QJ1054

West

North

East

South

 

Walter

 

Giorgio

 

 

 

1^Roman

1

X^values

Pass

2^canape

2

Pass

Pass

3^{5 clubs}

Pass

4

Pass

4^{5 hearts}

All pass

At the other table North cashed his nine top tricks in 3NT, but at this table 4 went off. Forquet notes that "West led the king of spades and Giorgio could not make the contract since the 4-2 trump split didn't give him time to establish the clubs", but that 5 could have been made. 4 is a better contract than Forquet acknowledges, but can't be made because East has four hearts and a diamond singleton — what's the best (but failing) line? And how should 5 be made on the same lead?

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In 4, you cash Q, cross to 10, and discard a spade on A. Then you play on clubs, with dummy's trump protecting you against a force on the third round of spades and K to play if dummy takes that force. However, with East having a diamond singleton he can ruff A, and the defence retains control.

In 5, you win the spade lead, cash Q, cross to 10, and lead A ruffed and overruffed. Then you try the hearts: the third round is ruffed and overruffed. Then K, ruffed and overruffed. Then another heart winner, and finally dummy's spade loser can be discarded.

I'm writing about this because the hand looked familiar, and indeed there it is on page 150 of Bridge with the Blue Team by the same author, first published three years later. This time Belladonna bids to 5 and makes it on the attractive "striptease", while 4 goes off in the other room. You can't believe everything you read.

Bad slam

Love all
Dealer West

• AKQJ106
• 10985
• 65
• 3

• 7
• KQ64
• 942
• QJ986

N

W

E

S

• 32
• J3
• KJ10873
• 754

• 9854
• A72
• AQ
• AK102

West

North

East

South

Simon

Jon

Verity

Paul

Pass

1

Pass

2NT^raise

Pass

4

Pass

6

All pass

You find yourself in 6 on this hand, and thank your partner warmly enough, reflecting that if you were 6241 you'd be taking the diamond finesse for an overtrick instead of in a near-hopeless position, and that while your 4 jump suggested good spades, you might have had a little something outside. The opening lead is 2, right-hand opponent playing the seven. How do you proceed?

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There are two possibilities. One is ace of clubs, club ruff high, nine of spades, king of clubs pitching a diamond, club ruff, ace of diamonds, diamond ruff. Somewhere in the middle of that you cash the ace of hearts, and you now exit with a heart, hoping that one opponent starting with KQ, KJ, or QJ of hearts (9.7%) or that an opponent with K6, K4, or K3 of hearts (9.7%) fails to unblock the king under the ace, or that East with KJxx of hearts (4.8%) fails to rise with the king.

The other is a round-suit squeeze. If you choose this line, and you think you can read the discards, you need the diamond finesse, then you can make if one opponent has any 5 or more clubs or QJ(x)(x) and four or more hearts or KQJ. The combined odds are 5.0%. You simply take the diamond finesse then cash all but one of your trumps, discarding a heart from dummy. inflicting a trump squeeze without the count. With seven cards left, an opponent holding four clubs and three hearts has had to let all his diamonds go. Now a diamond to the ace squeezes him out of a guard.

My partner chose the squeeze line, but he ducked a heart to the jack early in the play. This makes the hand easier to read, but is technically inferior in that if East had held Qxx or Jxx of clubs she could have beaten the contract by continuing hearts. As it was, she preferred to switch to a club, forcing declarer to play the trump squeeze anyway, this time with the count, instead of a simple squeeze which required no guesswork over the discards. East-West — who are the sort of opponents I don't mind going off against — generously congratulated declarer.