Saturday,
August 10, 2002 5:34 PM
Mount PIOTR
PITBULLS:
On Thursday nite , Mount Piotr erupted and molten lava stewed out all over the table . What happened to cause the eruption actually has some bridge merit for the rest of us and another reminder to Piotr that his eruption was heard for miles away and spread ashes all over the place . Therefore , we will take the liberty of discussing the hand :
The hand AKQxx Ax J10x 9xx
Mr. Gandolfo was in 3NT and Kiz led a heart . Tom ducked Piotr played the 10 and Tom won the jack . Tom layed down the Jack of spades and Kiz and dummy played small and Klimo played the 7 . Tom continued with a spade and Klimo played the 5 of spades . Tom started running the spades and Klimo followed with the 2 of spades .
As the obnoxious dummy that I am , I noticed Klimo's gyrations with his spade cards . Therefore I turned to Kiz and asked her what they meant . Dead silence from her , so as a good dummy I went back to sleep . Tom ran the rest of the spades and Kiz made a fatal club sluff and Tom made his 3NT . Mount Piotr then erupted.
Expert partnerships will use every advantage to help partner out in defense . Piotr's play of the spade cards was obviously meant to give partner a message to help her sluff or ask for a shift . Giving count in this solid spade suit is rather silly , so experts assign a meaning to the order in which they follow suit .What would the deuce of spades mean ? We have discussed that before and that is a reverse Smith echo saying that I like your lead partner . Piotr went out of his way to play his highest spade first . What meaning could be assigned to that card which would easy on the memory and helpful for the defense ? Klimo had diamonds under control with the Ace & King in his hand . Diamonds are the higher ranking of the two suits left that have been untouched by declarer.
O.K. if he played his spades with the 5 first and then the deuce and then the seven . The immediate High Low playing upside down signals means that I have nothing useful to say . For memory aid purposes this is like a high/low in upside signals ( nothing pard ) . With 2 spades you are restricted to either liking partners opening lead or not . The 3rd spade gives you the luxury of giving partner further information and can be used as suit preference. What if Piotr had the Ace & King of clubs ? Piotr would play the 5 of spades followed by the 7 of spades followed by the deuce. He did not HI/lLow immediately which gives no information . He did not play the deuce which says I like your opening lead and he did not play his highest spade for the higher ranking suit he played the lower of his two highest cards. This corresponds to the lower of the two untouched suits i.e. clubs . This is like cheating !
PITBULLS : put this in your repertoire
PIOTR : More Yoga please
Bridge Defense By Mike Lawrence
EAST DEALS
NORTH-SOUTH VULNERABLE
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Pass |
1NT* |
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Pass |
6NT |
Pass |
Pass |
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Pass |
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*1NT = 15-17
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NORTH |
10 9 5 4
10 9 7 3
9 5
J 10 9The only good thing for West is that he has an easy lead in the jack of clubs. East plays the two and South wins the king. Declarer starts diamonds by playing the ace and leading the four to dummy's king. East follows with the two and ten. Declarer leads a third diamond to his jack as East follows again with the six. You have to find a discard now and another one on the next diamond. Do you have any idea what you will discard? Why?
You can afford to throw your spades, but not your hearts. Partner has given you the clue. Did you notice it? When South played three rounds of diamonds, East played, in order, the two, ten, and six. East has gone out of his way to play diamonds in an abnormal sequence. Assuming your partner does not play random cards and that he is trying to help you defend, you can infer that partner has something in spades. You should keep your hearts and give up the spade suit.
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Declarer will try the hearts, but when they don't divide, he will have to fall back on the spade finesse, which will lose. Down one. If West had discarded a heart, 6NT would have made. The key was East's play of the ten of diamonds at trick two. It was an abnormal play which carried a message.
West had to notice it and then he had to interpret it correctly.
East's cards told West he could abandon spades in order to save hearts. Because East WENT OUT OF HIS WAY to signal in diamonds, West was entitled to look for a message. If East had played diamonds in normal order, that is 2, 6, 10, there would have been no message intended.
This really was a nice defense. West has one point yet he has the setting trick if he can just tell what it is. Well done.