presents Professor
IMP's Weekly Master
Class #15
To Prof. IMP Index
- |
'Empty Spaces' |
Professor IMP had been invited to try out a new piece of software
- StepBridge, the first Dutch on-line bridgeprogram (www.casema.net/~stepsoft/).
Not all of the program's gadgets were operational yet, but one could already
play a fair hand of bridge using StepBridge.
The Professor watched his students play a couple of test deals. It struck
him how beautifully the program worked, although the students blew quite
a few deals. Take this deal, for instance:
-
Against 3NT, West led the 
10
for the East's Ace. East returned the suit, South won his King and made
his plan. Establishing the hearts was much too risky as the defence might
simply win the Ace and cash their spades. And as the club suit would not
provide enough tricks, declarer realized that he had to put all his money
on the diamonds. The suit had to yield five tricks.
West was likely to have seven spades, so according to the theory of
empty spaces, declarer reasoned that the diamonds were very likely divided
1-3 or even 0-4.
At trick three declarer crossed to dummy's 
A.
West followed with the four and East with the six. This was followed by
a small diamond from dummy, and when East played the eight, South inserted
the Jack.
Alas, West won with the Q,
and cashed a zillion spades, setting the contract four tricks. The student,
who was convinced that he had played the hand correctly, felt rather sorry
for himself. This was the full deal:
- -
-
| S/EW |
J
 Q 8
6 3
A 10
9 3 2
 A K 9 |
|
Q 10 9 8 6 4 3
A 9 4
Q 4
J |
|
A 5 2
7 5 2
8 6
10 8 7 5 3 |
| e |
K
7
K J
10
K J 7 5
Q 6 4 2 |
|
|
-
|
-
'No question of bad luck, young man!', Professor IMP sharply
remarked. 'You missed the point of the deal completely. You should test
the clubs before attacking the diamonds. This play will cost you nothing.
Moreover, you will discover that West began with a singleton club and,
in accordance with the empty space theory*, West is unlikely to have another
singleton. Therefore, the correct way of handling the diamond suit is to
cash the Ace and the King.'
Adding insult to injury, Professor IMP, while normally a good-natured
fatherly figure, could not refrain from remarking, 'If you had studied
your probability tables with the dilligence they deserve, you would have
known that a 7-3-2-1 distribution is, in fact,
more than four times as likely as a 7-4-1-1 distribution, and that knowledge
would surely have pointed you in the right direction.'
To IMP Bridge Index