After taking the diamond queen w/ one of S’s honors, I would play off my other diamond honor and club king, then lead the spade 7. If the opponents rise w/ the trump K (doesn’t matter which one has it), I can safely take any card they lead after that and then still enter dummy by leading my trump 3 to dummy’s 5 and get rid of my heart loser on a high club.
And if they don’t rise up with the king on the lead of South’s spade 7, I’m in dummy right away and my heart loser goes away immediately.
bobbywolffApril 16th, 2021 at 5:33 pm
Hi David,
Very imaginative, but you failed to mention the possibility that after you rose with the eight in dummy over your seven (led from your hand) and the six does not appear from either defensive hand, down one you would almost certainly go.
However, yes you have played this hand with remarkable efficiency and deserved a better fate, even though the singleton king was held by East and all other NS’s were luckily taking all 13 tricks instead of sadly, only eleven at your table.
Making matters worse, the zero you would have have received would stand alone, in spite of your favorite bridge site commending you on your incredible imagination.
Were you at fault? Probably not, except you might have pulled off a brilliancy by ducking in dummy, forcing East to win the trick, but still scoring up your small slam, although losing to all those beginners who banged down the ace, caught a whale and scored up an overtrick.
Even worse, perhaps one pair sitting your way at matchpoints had stopped below slam, making 7, but still having a plus score to show.
Such is life at a competitive bridge table, but one which sometimes occurs, testing a fierce competitor’s ability to shrug it off, and play up to snuff for the remainder of the session.
BTW, it is probably a good thing that disasters such as above do happen, if for no other reason than to test one’s own ability to overcome embarrassing results, even accept other’s criticism, but knowing full well that your play offered the best chance for success, without answering your critic’s comment
Perhaps Kipling’s poem, “IF” could have used the above example, if and when he played bridge, which is extremely doubtful to have happened.
Thanks for your report and all readers can rest assured that you DO NOT first look at the hand before you answer.
A big plus for your bridge ethics, even though it is not directly at the table, when proper bridge behavior is usually on view.
Continued good fortune and congratulations on your lines of play, and get ready to exhibit your skill at your very next opportunity.
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Bridge-related
Hmmm…
How about this?
After taking the diamond queen w/ one of S’s honors, I would play off my other diamond honor and club king, then lead the spade 7. If the opponents rise w/ the trump K (doesn’t matter which one has it), I can safely take any card they lead after that and then still enter dummy by leading my trump 3 to dummy’s 5 and get rid of my heart loser on a high club.
And if they don’t rise up with the king on the lead of South’s spade 7, I’m in dummy right away and my heart loser goes away immediately.
Hi David,
Very imaginative, but you failed to mention the possibility that after you rose with the eight in dummy over your seven (led from your hand) and the six does not appear from either defensive hand, down one you would almost certainly go.
However, yes you have played this hand with remarkable efficiency and deserved a better fate, even though the singleton king was held by East and all other NS’s were luckily taking all 13 tricks instead of sadly, only eleven at your table.
Making matters worse, the zero you would have have received would stand alone, in spite of your favorite bridge site commending you on your incredible imagination.
Were you at fault? Probably not, except you might have pulled off a brilliancy by ducking in dummy, forcing East to win the trick, but still scoring up your small slam, although losing to all those beginners who banged down the ace, caught a whale and scored up an overtrick.
Even worse, perhaps one pair sitting your way at matchpoints had stopped below slam, making 7, but still having a plus score to show.
Such is life at a competitive bridge table, but one which sometimes occurs, testing a fierce competitor’s ability to shrug it off, and play up to snuff for the remainder of the session.
BTW, it is probably a good thing that disasters such as above do happen, if for no other reason than to test one’s own ability to overcome embarrassing results, even accept other’s criticism, but knowing full well that your play offered the best chance for success, without answering your critic’s comment
Perhaps Kipling’s poem, “IF” could have used the above example, if and when he played bridge, which is extremely doubtful to have happened.
Thanks for your report and all readers can rest assured that you DO NOT first look at the hand before you answer.
A big plus for your bridge ethics, even though it is not directly at the table, when proper bridge behavior is usually on view.
Continued good fortune and congratulations on your lines of play, and get ready to exhibit your skill at your very next opportunity.