Sunday, March 20, 2005 6:02 PM

Patterns - Ducking

PITBULLS:

Clichés are dangerous in Bridge . “Aces are made to take Kings” or “cover an honour with an honour” are some of these half truths. These clichés are true only if the application of a pattern dictates that this is the right play. Taking Aces quite often assists declarer. It allows transportation between declarer and dummy . Taking an Ace allows timing for declarer or might assist in a guess rather than being deceptive . Taking the Ace of trump might allow declarer to retain control of his trump suit. Taking an Ace might allow declarer to continue with his plan of suit establishment.

I was defending a 2♥ contract with this collection . 10xx Q10 Axxx Axxx and the auction went 1♦-P-2♥-P all pass. I decided to lead 4^th best club as the king is most likely on the board or in partners hand on the auction. The board hits with Q98x x KQ10x KQxx and declarer plays the club king which of course wins. Declarer leads a diamond and partner plays the 9 and declarer the jack. Do you take the Ace ? Not a chance as patterns tell you not to. I was playing standard count with this partner and he was showing me two diamonds. Plug this into a pattern and the diamonds are 4-4-3-2 with declarer having 3 of them. So you duck and declarer continues a diamond. You now win your Ace and partner follows through with his echo as expected. You return a diamond and partner ruffs. Partner leads a small heart and declarer plays small and you win the heart 10. You try to cash you club Ace and declarer ruffs. Declarer now has to break spades herself or lead hearts. Either play leads to one down. If you take your diamond Ace prematurely you allow the contract to be made.

Applying patterns are a “good habit” to develop. Actually it is more than that . It is an essential habit to develop. Patterns prevent you from making “silly plays” and not ducking when it is obvious to do so . The board in 3NT looked like this after a 1♥ opener and a 2NT rebid

K	x	Q	x
9		J	x
8		10	x
7		9
x

Partner leads the king of clubs & the other club honours which declarer takes after holding up twice. Declarer now leads a small spade and inserts the spade 9. Your hand is A10x K10987 xxx xx and you followed to two clubs and discarded a diamond on the other. You win your 10 and return a small heart with declarer winning the queen. Declarer now leads the spade jack , small , small and your play. Apply patterns before taking an honour. The spades are 5-3-3-2 with declarer only have two of them. Taking the Ace would be suicide for the defense as the spades are established and declarer has only one diamond entry. You duck and win 12 IMPS as your partners avoided the 3NT trap and made +620 in spades at the other table.

This bad play was made by a good Bridge player who said she should have figured it out. This is fallacious reasoning as applying patterns figure these things out for you. Patterns dictate whether you duck or take tricks . Patterns dictate whether you cover an honour with an honour . Patterns , do not leave home without them !

Developing the habit of applying patterns prevent “mental fogs” like the one I am about to relate. An expert led the K of hearts from KQxx against 3NT . A stiff heart jack was on the board and declarer won the Ace with me playing the deuce (upside down count ) . He got in again so should he continue hearts ? I bid a weak jump shift on this auction. This shows 6 or 7 hearts so applying patterns should be an automatic reflex . The hearts are 6-4-2-1 or 7-4-1-1 so in either case the hearts are ready to role. Our expert did not apply patterns so he dreamt up an imaginary holding where continuing hearts would be dangerous . Declarer holding A10x opposite the stiff jack so continuing might give up a trick. Accordingly , he switched to a spade so the heart could come though and declarer made +630 instead of -300 and 16 IMPS went sailing away.