By that extra care
A.K. Bhurgri
Dummy play in Bridge is never easy if the declarer is unaware of the possible threats to his contract that can come unexpectedly and cause him to lose control. For visualizing the possible distribution of the opponents Cards is the key to a successful dummy play. Many a time a contract that may look solid can have a surprise twist to turn the tables on the declarer and make him fall from grace in an otherwise ice cold contract with proper and careful dummy play. A good Bridge dummy player knows how to keep control of the hand and plans meticulously to make the contract at hand. Imaginative foresight and careful handling of the cards is the key to success at dummy play. But sometimes when the contract looks easy, many a declarer have gone down for failing to recognize the possible pitfalls that lie in the path. Of course some good tactful defense can make life difficult for the declarer. But planning one’s play in accordance with the bidding, opening lead and subsequence defense moves makes the declarer’s task much easier.
Let us learn by example:
North south are in 4S with the following cards.
The bidding proceeds as under:
The opening lead from west is naturally the JH, which is allowed to win. But on the next heart lead. South has little option left but to ruff it in hand with the 2S. Can you plan your play in the south seat to guarantee the making of your 4S contract against the best defense.
First things first. You need to count your possible winners and losers. As you can see you have apart from the first heart trick lost, no other apparent loser with that massive 2 suitor 7-5 hand with one singleton and a void. All the 5 trumps can run even after the first ruff in hand. If diamonds are 3-2, declarer can make 12 tricks provided trumps behave 3-2; but a good declarer anticipates bad breaks and is a careful, cautious player who has the foresight to visualize that even if trumps are 4-1 and the diamond suit also likewise distributed as 4-1, he can guarantee 10 tricks for himself with proper timing and play. Can you do likewise? There is an eerie temptation to knock out the trumps at once and run the diamond suit successfully in the making of 4S.
After ruffing the next heart, did you play trump to the KS in dummy, unblock the KD and continued with the JS, on which west discards a club. Now when south cashes the trump ace, he finds trumps not breaking too friendly with west discarding a club. At this point when south at the table continued with a top diamond he was appalled to find that west had the suit guarded? Bingo! South was in deep trouble and could only cash the 2 top diamonds to go 2 down in a contract which he should have made despite the bad breaks in trumps and his long side suit diamonds. Can you find the right line of play as south?
Yes, you will not be as careless as south was in the actual deal, for you know the advantage of establishing a good side suit before trumps.
Let us proceed with the right play. After ruffing the second heart, you first knock out KD blocking your side suit. Coming to hand with the trump ace to which all follow, you know that the contract with both your suits breaking no worse than 4-1 is now a certainty. How? You ruff a low diamond on the table, careful enough to ruff high but extra cautious to ruff it with KS and not the JS which is your sole return card to ensure your contract by not losing trump control. For you can and must overtake the JS with the QS event at the cost of establishing an extra trump trick for the defence. So long as the 3 remaining trumps are not in the same hand, you can run your diamond suit as your reserve trumps affording to lose 2 tricks to east but ensuring your contract by taking that extra care.
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North South
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K J 3 A Q 6 4 2
K 6 4 7
K A Q 8 6 5 4 2
J 9 7 6 4 2
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S W N E
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1D P 2C 2H
2S P 2NT P
3S P 4S All Pass
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