Blockhead
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday April 30, 2002
One of Australia's top players, now retired, is Les Longhurst, who played for Australia in the 1976 Bermuda Bowl and World Open Teams Olympiad. He recently showed me this neat double dummy problem. If you have yet to solve it and do not want to read the solution, cover the text after the hand diagram.
Heart are trumps. South is on lead and North-South are to make all six tricks.
Solution:
You have five winners: two hearts, two diamonds and the CA. To score the sixth trick, start by cashing the DA and play dummy's DJ, unblocking. Then play a spade and ruff it in dummy. Continue with dummy's remaining heart on which you discard the C10.
West cannot afford to throw a club, else declarer can cash dummy's two clubs. West must also keep the DQ or declarer can finesse the D9 for the extra trick. Therefore West throws the remaining spade.
On the second heart, East has been able to throw the C6 safely but now you cash the CA. East has to make a discard from SJ and D10-8. If the SJ is thrown, you throw D9 and your spade and the DA are the last two tricks. If East discards a diamond, you let your spade go and your diamonds are good.
I am no great fan of double dummy problems but the above contains a useful, practical aspect. Unblocking the DJ under the DA creates a finessing position against the D10. That situation can occur in a number of guises.
If South needs five tricks from this suit and has no outside entry, South should start by cashing the king and unblocking dummy's 10. This is followed by a low card to dummy's ace. When West shows out, declarer can finesse the 9 to bring in the rest of the suit. If South plays the king and carelessly follows with the two from dummy, the suit is blocked. After a low card to the ace, East need merely play low on the ten and South makes three tricks only.
This is a similar position:
Suppose South needs four tricks and has no entry. South could hope for a 3-3 break and just cash the king, ace and queen. What if South is confident or sure that West has at most a doubleton? The winning move is to play the king and unblock dummy's nine. The four is led to the ace and when West follows with an honour you can finesse the eight next. If you fail to unblock the nine, the suit will again block.
If at first you don't succeed, you are like 99.9% of all bridge players.
Tomorrow's problem:
East dealer : Both vulnerable
West North East South
-- -- 2C (1) Pass
2D 2S 3D Pass
Pass Dble (2) Pass 4C
Pass 5C Pass ?
(1) Benjamin 2, 8+ playing tricks
(2) Takeout double
Do you pass or bid on with:
' 73
? A42
? 542
? KQ763
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald