| Show BETTER BRIDGE BRIDGEy rj S I Ih h y C G H. H GOREN i S Neither Neither side vulnerable West Vest deals NORTH 97 Q 6 4 J 10 7 4 A Q J 9 6 WEST ST EAST V 9 8 4 K 5 2 93 10 3 8 7 5 4 SOUTH SOUTHA A J 10 5 2 x xV V A J 10 7 3 4 A 2 K 2 The bidding West Kest est North East Fat South 1 14 2 2 24 Pass 3 3 Pass 4 Pass Pa Pass s sPass Pass Opening Opening- lead King King- of spades Disregarding partners partner's request in the defense of a hand can be excusable only if Ir you are quite sure you can beat the hand your own o way And even then it is doubtful unless there is some feature about your hand that your partner couldn't possibly know How many times have we heard I 1 saw your signal partner but I couldn't see ee how it would do any good to lead leada a spade For nonsense such as this there is no excuse Such a player would be better advised to say Sorry partner I just didn't notice your our signal Otherwise se sethe the player in question is guilty g of arrogance of or the first order Just because you cannot sec see why your partner wants a certain thing done is no excuse for failing to do so He knows why That should be enough Today's hand provides a splendid illustration of just that sort of thing The final contract was four hearts West Vest ope opened cd with one diamond and north made a very doubtful overcall of two clubs South was unwilling to play the hand for less than game and quite properly jumped in hearts A mere bid aid of two hearts would not have obliged north to speak again ain since he did not open the bidding North was undecided between three no trump and four hearts but elected to make the latter call because of the weak spade holding The king king- kingo o of spades was opened and east followed with the eight West Vest continued with the ace and east cast completed his echo by playing playing playing play play- ing the four West Vest knew that east could not be out of spades because that would give declarer six to the Q J and something surely would have been heard about that suit So west decided to shift to the king of diamonds to build up upa a trick in that suit That was the end of the party Declarer won and led a low club to the queen in dummy The heart finesse cleared up the trumps and the king of clubs was overtaken and all losers disposed of on dummy's good suit West Vest actually should have realized realized realized real real- why east wanted a spade continuation but even e if he didn't he should have taken partners partner's word for it The third spade lead forces dummy to ruff and the king of trumps cannot be picked up Then east gets in with the king king- of trumps he can can cash a good spade before discards are taken If declarer tries to circumvent this scheme by refusing to ruff the third spade east wins and leads the fourth ourOl spade This will be ruffed by west and arid dummy will be forced to Partner knows best |
