|
Dummy
♠KJ952
Declarer
♠A Q 7
|
You
probably think that it is not beyond your capacity to
cash the ace, followed by the queen and the seven. You
are, however, quite wrong. I did not deal you this suit
to see you solve an unblocking problem, and you have
just missed an excellent opportunity to test the honesty
of your opponents and their methods. If you simply
cash the ace, nobody will bother to reveal
their distribution,
but try the effect of leading the queen first!
Now
each of the defenders might think that his partner holds
the ace and will normally try hard
to give count, so that partner can grab the ace
at the right moment.
If
one or both defenders manage to falsecard in this
situation and you will find out when you run the
suit you should not trust any of their signals for
the rest of the session. I find it a considerable
advantage to get a suit like this at the beginning of a
Teams event, so that I know where I am for the rest of
the match.
As
you have seen in this example, the effect you want to
achieve occurs by leading from your hand an honour card
that is touching to one or more honour cards in dummy,
and that has the air of being an unblocking play.
|
Dummy
♠ J 9 5 2.
Declarer
♠KQ10
|
With
this combination you should lead the
queen to test your opponents' count
signals!
For
various reasons this lead is also more
likely than the lead of the king to
locate the position
of the ace. West, if holding the ace,
will quite
often cover the queen to protect
partner's holding in the suit
(remember that he cannot see
the ten). East, if he holds the ace, may
well take it to preserve a
possible tempo or for fear of
later crashing partner's king. The lead
of the king does not have this
effect, as it normally 'promises' the
queen.
Having
tested your opponent with one or two of
the above-mentioned suit combinations
and found out that they are quite
honest, you may get a chance to use your
knowledge later in the match.
|
|
|
Now
you quite routinely play the queen to ensure
that you get the count! West follows with the
six and plays the nine under the ace. When you then play
the four, he produces the three. This
is rather confusing. What is going on, when your
opponents are playing normal signals?
Well,
it is quite simple. West started a count signal
from J963 with the intention of playing the three
on the second round, when he expects you to play a low
card towards dummy. When, you show
up with the ace after the queen, he knows that he has
given away the position. In an attempt to recover, he is now
trying to disguise his length and show an odd number, but the
play of the three on the third round reveals everything,
and a finesse of the ten is almost sure to win at
least in my experience.
If
your opponents play upside down signals, you will see the same
thing happen when West holds 963. He starts with the six to show
an odd number, then tries to fool you by throwing the nine, but
the final play of the three
discloses the distribution, and it is almost a sure thing
to go up with the king and drop the jack from East's hand.
Now
that you know how a nasty declarer tries to discover the
distribution of your suits, you would probably want to know how
to defend against this. I am sorry, but I cannot
help
you. There is hardly any defence except by illegal
methods, and they are not recommended if you want to
continue playing bridge.
Inspiration
may help you, but if you are too inspired and partner seems to
work it out most of the time, you are close to illegal methods.
Holding the hand with 963 (using normal signals) you could of
course play the six followed by the nine, being semi-honest to
your partner, and then play the three, which would fool me if I
was the nasty declarer. If from
J963 you have started with the six to show an even
number, my advice to you is to follow normally with the three
and then the nine. Most declarers are very suspicious of honesty
like that, especially if they have not had the opportunity of
testing you with another combination earlier in the match.
My
BOLS bridge tip is this:
Take
the opportunity early in a match to
discover the honesty
of your opponents' signalling it may help you later on.
|
