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Blackwood on Bridge By Easley Blackwood
Don’t forget – you can still enter for the 6th World Youth Open Bridge Championships being held in Croatia from 20 – 29 August. 2019.
The big problem in the play of many hands is that of deciding which suit to work on to establish your tricks. There are many factors to consider in making your choice.
SOUTH DEALER. Neither side vulnerable.
Lead: 4
TO WHICH OPPONENT are you willing to surrender the lead? Will you have entries to run your suit after it is established? How many tricks will you have to give up to establish your suit? Is it better to work first on a suit where you have first and second round control, or should you go after a suit in which the enemy holds the top cards?.
In today’s deal Mr. Dale’s play was influenced principally by his desire to keep Mr. Abel out of the lead. Mr. Champion opened the four of hearts. Dummy’s queen was put up and it held. Now Mr. Dale forgot about the suit temporarily. He did not relish either a heart or a club lead from his right. Instead, he led a small spade from dummy at trick two and put in the eight spot from his hand.
MR. CHAMPION won with the queen and could not lead another heart without losing a trick. He therefore returned the eight of diamonds. Mr. Dale was still not ready to take a chance on losing the lead to Mr. Abel. He went up with dummy’s ace of diamonds and pulled the jack of spades through. It held when Mr. Abel refused to cover. Now another spade to the ace cleared that suit, With nine tricks in sight, it was now time to take the diamond finesse. It lost to the queen but Mr. Dale won the heart return with the ace and had nine tricks, including t three spades, two hearts, three diamonds and a club. He would not have fared this well if he had ducked the first heart lead In dummy, won in his own hand with the jack and taken the diamond finesse before going after the spades.