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“The customer is always ripe.” — First Law of Sales.
Declarer has an edge: He can see the combined assets in his hand and dummy. But the defenders have one also: They know which of declarer’s finesses will win and whether his key suits will break well. When a suit lies well for declarer, the defense must try to dissuade him from attacking it.
Those conditions were ripe in today’s deal. At 3NT, South won the first club with dummy’s queen and took the ace of hearts. East knew that if declarer had Q-x-x-x-x (and the bidding made that likely), he would do well if he continued hearts. So to deflect South from a winning play, East threw his king of hearts under the ace!
ELSEWHERE
South thought he needed to go elsewhere for tricks. He came to his ace of diamonds and finessed with dummy’s nine of spades.
When East won and returned a club, South could win only seven tricks. If East follows with the nine on the first heart and South continues hearts, South easily makes 3NT.
DAILY QUESTION
You hold: S A K J 9 4 H A 10 D 6 5 2 C Q 5 4. You deal and open one spade, your partner bids two hearts, you rebid two spades and he tries three clubs. What do you say?
ANSWER: Partner’s three clubs — a new suit by responder — is forcing. You can’t rebid the spades again, raise clubs with only three-card support or bid 3NT. Bid three hearts. Partner won’t expect better support since you often would have raised directly with three cards in hearts.
North dealer
N-S vulnerable
NORTH
S A K J 9 4
H A 10
D 6 5 2
C Q 5 4
WEST
S 6 2
H 8 3 2
D K 10 8
C K J 7 6 3
EAST
S Q 10 8 5
H K J 9
D Q 7 3
C 10 9 2
SOUTH
S 7 3
H Q 7 6 5 4
D A J 9 4
C A 8
North East South West
1 S Pass 2 H Pass
2 S Pass 2 NT Pass
3 NT All Pass
Opening lead — C 6
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BC-stewart-bridge 02/02 TCA
