presents     Professor IMP's Weekly    Master Class  #1           To Prof. IMP Index

Prof. IMP 'An impossible entry'
.
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 

8 5 2
e
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."

  To IMP Bridge Index