Eric KokishWikipedia:Eric O. Kokish(born 1947) is a Canadian professional bridge player, writer, and coach from Montreal. Kokish graduated from McGill University.Kokish has been the coach of Nick Nickell’s professional team for many years. He first worked as coach for the Brazil national team in 1985 and later coached the Indonesia team briefly, a stint interrupted by political unrest in Jakarta. Around the Indonesia job he and his family relocated from Montreal to Toronto.Kokish was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2011. Kokish was inducted into the Canadian Bridge Federation’s Hall of Fame.IMPs Dealer West. N/S Vul
J 4 2
10 6 5 2
6
Q J 8 6 4
A 7 6 5
A Q J 7 3
A Q 7 5
—
West
North
East
South
1
Pass
1
2
3
3
Pass
4
Pass
Pass
Pass
Opening lead: A
The opponents lead the ace from ace-king with length, but West might have led the ace with out the king, speculatively from a short or long holding.
So, will you make 4on the lead of the A?
Would you respond to 1with the East hand? And if you were playing weak jump responses would you chose 1or a slightly 2? I believe that today at least half of the expert community would never consider passing 1at this vulnerability
You ruff the A and realize that you are going to need some luck. You plan to do something with dummy’s clubs, and so will do well not to go for (premature) diamond ruffs. You would like to take two rounds of trumps, ending in dummy, but in order to achieve this, you will have to forego the heart finesse… and them some.
It will help you if spades are 5-1, making it more likely that trump are 2-2. Give up on the singleton king of trump and play (best) the Q. It would have been particularly nice to cash the A before leading the Q, but that would be just too inspired.
West wins the K and switches to the K, but it doesn’t help him. You win, lead a low trump to dummy´s ten and pass the Q, discarding a spade. West has to lead a diamond into your tenace or a club, giving you nothing you couldn’t do yourself. You win with the J to throw another spade, ruff a club to set up the long card, play the A, ruff a diamond in dummy, and cash the thirteenth club. You lose only one more trick at the end.
Note that an expert West might just duck Q, playing his partner for the singleton ace, a layout perhaps more likely than the actual one, given declarer’s play in the trump suit.
The complete deal:
J 4 2
10 6 5 2
6
Q J 8 6 4
