Wednesday, February 16, 2005 10:30 AM

Hand Evaluation - Killing The Board ( Patterns )

PITBULLS:

There are some defensive strategies that come up so often in Bridge that they have labels attached to them. One is the “dummy lock” which is self evident by its name & “killing the dummy” is another. The most simplistic killing the board technique is to make the dummy ruff so you have more trump than the dummy. Patterns assist us in finding these common defensive plays . Lets discuss the “killing the board” strategy as a number of examples have come up in play recently. I was playing against the Bartons , the auction went

1♠-P-2♣-P We lead the diamond Ace , the board hits with ♠x ♥Jxx ♦xx ♣AKQJ10xx . We

2♥-P-3♣-P continue with the diamond king & everybody follows. Now what ? Patterns again

3♥-P-4♥-P . are the answer .Declarer is probably 5-5-2-1 so lead a club to “kill the board”. The club comes too early for declarers liking as the trumps are not drawn. Lee tried to recover by playing more clubs hoping that the long hand would ruff in but to no avail. Lee overruffed my trump , played the Ace & King of trump but my partner had Qxx so bye bye dummy. If we do not switch to a club , Lee plays AK of trump and runs clubs until partner ruffs in for –620. Timing is everything.

Susan was in 5♣ recently with “killing the board” again the defense du jour. You hold ♠A98xxx ♥Qx ♦KJx ♣xx , Susan has indicated a very long club suit on the bidding. You lead the heart queen , the board comes down with ♠KQJ10 ♥Kxx ♦xxxxx ♣K . Susan plays small , your queen wins so what is your next play ? The only entry to the spades is the trump king so “kill the board” by taking away that entry prematurely. You switch to a trump , Susan leads the spade king with partner signaling two spades. The hand can not be made now. What if you continue hearts ? Susan ruffs , leads a spade you win the Ace & continue a spade. Susan discards a diamond & leads another spade . I ruff with Qx of clubs , Susan over ruffs. Back to the club king drawing my last trump so Susan cashes the last spade for +600.

Good defenders quite often “kill the board” with their choice of opening leads.

1♠-P-2♦-P The 3♦ bid was alerted as not forcing , I held ♠Axx ♥xxx ♦xx ♣AJxxx . With a trump

2♠-P-3♦-P control I decided to “kill the board” by leading a diamond. ♠xx ♥xxx ♦AKQJxx ♣xx .

4♠-P-P-P Declarer won the diamond , led a spade which I ducked . Declarer lead another spade so I won my Ace & returned a diamond. The dummy was dead so we received +200 instead of –650.

The most common “killing the board” strategy is leading a trump when you have most of the HCP’s. My partner held a nice 16 HCP hand ♠AKQx ♥KJ10xx ♦Kxx ♣x & opened a heart. LHO bid 2NT vul , I bid 3♥ . RHO bid 4♣ , my partner bid 4♥ which brought 5♣ which got doubled & ended the auction. OK ,partner shows about 8 HCP’s for crawling in at the 3 level. You have 16 + 8 = 24 so the opponents are in a 16 HCP , 11 trick game. Where are their tricks going to come from ? If you say by ruffing , go to the head of the class. You lead a trump , the board comes down with ♠x ♥x ♦AJxxxx ♣AJ987 . Declarer has ♠xxxxx ♥xxxx ♦void ♣KQ10x . He needs 3 ruffs to establish the diamonds plus entries to get back and forth. This is impossible so he goes two down for +500. My partner did not lead a trump nor switch to a trump so -750 was the result. Timing is everything when you are trying to “kill a board”.