.
On one of his trips to charming Amsterdam, Professor IMP
couldn't resist the temptation to pay a visit to bridge club Hok. Understandable,
as this club was situated in the very picturesque heart of the old centre
along one of its most beautiful canals, the Keizersgracht. Moreover, Hok
has succesfully worked on the reputation of being the strongest bridgeclub
in Holland.
Every Monday evening the smelly little place - normally stuffed with
sweaty people playing dubious games like ping-pong and Russian poker -
is transformed into something that more or less seems to have all the important
ingredients of a normal bridge club in which players are yelling, drinking
and analysing (in that order). That very night, when the Professor played
in a friendly Butler tournament, people at the bar where vigorously discussing
the following deal in which everybody went down one in 5.
Well, almost everybody:
-
N/Neither Butler
K Q 5 3
-
Q 6 3
A J 10 9 7 3
J 10 9 7 2
K 3
10 8 5
K Q 4
A 8
6
A Q 10 9 6 4
4
8 5 2
e
4
J 8 7 5 2
A K J 9 7 2
6
- WEST-------
-
2 Pass
Pass
- NORTH -
Prof. IMP 1 3 5 Pass
- EAST ---
1 3 Pass
Pass
- SOUTH Student 2 4 5
Reasonable bidding, lousy contract. West led the K
ruffed in dummy. Declarer cashed theA
and pitched his singleton spade on the J.
West took and shifted to a trump. Declarer won with the nine, ruffed a
second heart and entered his hand with a club ruff. Then he ran his trumps
only to discover that East held on to his hearts resulting in two light.
After the game was over, the student apologized for his frivolous play.
He explained that he had tried to execute a Dutch Squeeze, hoping
that by hiding the exact spade position he could seduce East into keeping
his spades instead of his hearts.
"Only one trick difference, though," concluded the student, as he was
well aware that a crossruff in combination with a ruffing finesse in spades
would have led to ten tricks.
"Two tricks difference, young man," the Professor corrected. "Take
the trump return with the Queen in dummy and play the K.
I bet a million dollars of my own money that East will cover. You ruff
with the seven, cross to dummy with a heart ruff, ruff the third round
of clubs in your hand with the nine, cash a high diamond and play the deuce
of trumps!
West wins the trick, but with only spades left, he is forced to give
dummy the rest of the tricks because the clubs are high and the Q
is the entry."
"Elementary, young man!"
"However there is even a hundred percent solution if you time the play
differently," the Professor proceeded. "Ruff the first heart in dummy and
simply play a spade honour. If East takes the Ace, you will sooner
or later reach the same position in which West is thrown in with the 2
and has to concede the rest to dummy. Ducking the A
won’t help poor East either, because in that case eleven tricks are made
by crossruffing."
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