Dave Robinson gets it right

from an article written for the

Yorkshire Post

by Bill Townsend

Today's deal is taken from the National Pairs Leeds heat, and shows Sheffield's Dave Robinson 'guessing' well. Over East's 1 © , Dave bid 1NT and was raised to 3NT.
West led © J, won by his queen. Dave first cashed the ace and king of clubs, on which East threw a spade.
Even though East is marked with ¨ K for his opener, it looks natural to finesse in diamonds. However, East, with ¨ Kxx, should hold off his king for one round, so the suit would be dead. Alternatively, with Kx, East would win immediately but then West would have a stop in the suit.

			K 8 5
			10 6
			A Q J 5 4
			9 8 6
	10 9				A J 7 2
	J 3				K 9 8 7 5 2
	10 9 8 6				K 3
	J 10 5 3 2				4
			Q 6 4 3
			A Q 4
			7 2
			A K Q 7

Dave found the solution. He led a diamond up but when West covered, he played small from dummy! After winning the heart continuation, Dave played a diamond to the ace, dropping East's king, for four diamond tricks and the contract.
Note that this line would have produced only one diamond trick if East had started with Kxx, but Dave believed he had a vital clue to the layout. Surely East would be unlikely to make an early discard of a spade unless he had started with four? So, given West has © Jx, East is marked with a 4-6-2-1 distribution! Would you be convinced?
Usually there are clues, if we look closely enough, to guide us to the correct conclusion. No doubt Sherlock Holmes would have made an excellent bridge player, and he might occasionally have come across a 'two-pipe' problem.

---

HOME