Mark's Favourite Hand of the Month

I thought I would share with you my favourite hand from September.

It always seems very unfair to me that in bridge articles South gets to play every hand. To even things up, for this hand you are East. Yes, I know that is very confusing, but I’m sure in the real world you have come across an East who played a hand, so I’m sure you’ll cope.

All vulnerable, you hear two passes around to you and open a 15-17 1NT with this:

Partner tries to catch you out by raising to 2NT (invitational), but you aren’t having any of that and you pass.

South kicks off with  ♥K and down comes dummy. 

You can count 5 spade tricks and 2 red aces, plus you can set up 3 club tricks for 10 tricks in total. But hang on, you are only actually going to be able to take 3 tricks in spades, not 5. Why did you miscount the spade winners? Well, you only had your first bridge lesson a week ago, and this is only the 4th hand you have ever played. Yes, this hand is from one of our excellent beginners practice sessions.

You haven’t been taught about hold up plays, and even if you had it isn’t right to hold up here according to the Rule of 7. Anyway, who has time for that in a fast-paced game of bridge. The ♥K runs around to your hand, and you win the Ace ♥A.

Time to get after those clubs. You play a low club to dummy’s ♣K and North wins with the ♣A. They return the ♦K. Again, you grab the trick with your Ace ♦A.

Here is what it looks like now.

You play a club to the ♣T and then another back to ♣Q in your hand. This cunning piece of deception doesn’t fool the opponents who both follow. A quick look at the tricks shows you have made 4 already and need another 4 for your contract.

Here we are:

In what is unlikely to be the last time you make this mistake in your bridge career (I did it on Saturday), you now play the ♠T towards dummy and decide that the ♠J is high enough to win the trick, thus blocking the suit.

You cash your ♠A and your ♣J and with 7 tricks in the bag and the lead in dummy, here you are:

At this point it occurs to you that there might have been a way to end up in your own hand to cash the ♠K.

Now like many other “sports”, it is often not the ability to stay out of trouble that defines a great player, but the ability to recover when you do end up in trouble. The golfer whose tee-shot slams into a forest but finds a way through the gap in the trees, or a rugby player who uses their own fumble of the ball to open up a path to the try line, these are the inspirations that you need now, and more.

Something in the back of your mind triggers a memory. Didn’t Sherlock Holmes once solve a case because of a dog that didn’t bark? Why hadn’t North returned a heart when they got in with the ♣A? Was it because they’d only been playing bridge for 8 days? Or could it be that they didn’t have one?

If North didn’t have hearts, and you know that nobody now had clubs, then North was left with just diamonds and spades.

Nonchalantly, you exit with a diamond. North cashes three diamond tricks but then must play a spade to your ♠K for your 8th trick.

Here was the full hand:

Yes, North could have tried to beat this by ducking the diamond at the end, allowing their partner to get in with the ♦T and cash some heart tricks. A line of play that plenty of experts would miss, but you are expecting a week-2 beginner to find? Wow, your standards are high! In any case, South can’t get rid of all their spades, so it won’t work.

When this current batch of beginners finish their lessons and head out to play the rest of us, watch out that they don’t pull off an end play against you to make their contract. They have some previous form in this area!