Lesson By Lawrence
n
This hand came up in Mexico a few weeks ago during a class. It is
interesting in that it reflects a rare theme I saw Bob Hamman use a few years
ago. The theme was clear enough but it is not common. In actual fact, I suspect
that it comes up rather frequently, but because it has limited publicity, it is not
well known. Here it is in real life.
I was West and my wife, Karen, was sitting East. Here is the situation as
seen by Karen.
North
Q108
10983
KJ5
Q82
East (Karen)
A95
J10762
2
K1094
West
1
All Pass
North
2
East
4
South
1
4
The auction started fast and stopped faster. West led the two top hearts and
South ruffed the second round. South led a small spade to dummy's king, taken
by East's ace. East, hoping for a diamond ruff, returned the two of diamonds.
South took the ace and led a spade to dummy's ten. West, on the first two
spades, followed with the two and four.
Now dummy led the six of diamonds, giving East the option of ruffing or
discarding.
What would your choice be? For extra credit, what do you return next if
you decide to ruff the diamond?
The answer to this hand is that East must not ruff the diamond. South
wins his king and ruffs a diamond in dummy with the three of spades.
How should East defend?
What happened was that Karen did not ruff. She judged that South was
6-5 in diamonds and spades. If East overruffed, that would be the third trick for
the defense but that would also be the last trick. The winning defense was not to
ruff. This defense put South into the odd position of not having enough trumps.
Even though South has two trumps to East's one, he needs one more.
Here is the complete hand.
West
42
AKQ93
Q1085
J2
North
K103
84
63
AQ8763
South
QJ876
5
AKJ974
5
East
A95
J10762
2
K1094
When East does not overruff the diamond, South can come to his hand
by ruffing something, and then must lose a diamond trick to West. West leads a
club or a heart and South can not get to his hand to run the rest of the diamonds
without using up his last trump. East will come in with the nine of spades and
that will be the end of South.
A lovely hand. As noted, this theme came up many years ago in one of
the team trials and Hamman refused to overruff in much the same situation.
South can make the hand if he goes about it differently, but that is
another issue. One important theme that all bridge players must learn to deal with
is not how the hand in front of them should be played, but how it IS BEING
PLAYED. South mistimed the hand and that gave East a chance to defeat
South.
SPECIAL NOTE - East's play of not ruffing the second diamond lead
from dummy is an excellent one to note. It takes great restraint not to ruff
something when you have a little trump lying around that does not seem to be
doing anything. In fact, it is right more often than not for you not to ruff. While
the theme is a bit broad to go into in detail, this hand should serve as an example
that not ruffing can be crucial to the defense. You will have to take it from me
that the situation is more common than you may think.
Mike Lawrence has won three world championships, numerous national titles,
and has accumulated 20,000 masterpoints. He has also written 18 books, many
of which have won Book of the Year awards from Alfred Sheinwold and from
the American Bridge Teachers Association. For book and software information,
please email Mike at
--
※ 来源: 中国科大BBS站 [bbs.ustc.edu.cn]