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 East. N/S Vul
A 8
J 5 3 2
J 7 5 3
A Q 4
J 6
A K Q 10 8 6
A Q 9
J 6
West
North
East
South
4
5
Pass
5
Pass
6
Pass
Pass
Pass
You find yourself at the wheel in a precarious 6 after a 4 opening by East forced you to commit yourself.
West leads the2. The only good news is that this appears to be a singleton. You win the A, East playing the 10, and lead a trump to the ace. East discarding the 3.
With possible losers in three suits, how do you plan to continue?
Draw the last two trumps, ending in dummy and lead a diamond to the queen. If West takes the king and was dealt both theK and that likely singleton spade, he will be endplayed: a diamond will run yourA-9 and a club will give you three club tricks with a finesse on the way back, In either case, you will have a parking place or your spade loser.
If West is sufficiently inspired to duck theQ smoothly, you will be more or less forced to playA and another anyway, playing East forKx or West forK10xx. If in this variation, you thought that you could lead the6 to the queen to lead diamond to the nine (planning to keep East off play with Kxx), you would be playing for a misdefense. With 10xx, West would win the ten and exit the K, cutting you off from the long diamond. The unfortunate layout of the North-South trump spots would deprive you of a late trump entry.
If you plan to play on these lines, you must cross in clubs early and leave theJ in dummy and a trump in West’s hand. That is how declarer played in real life, but when theQ lost to the king, West (Peter Schwartz) rejected the apparently safe exit of his las trump, emerging instead with theK, smothering declarer’s jack. This farsighted play had the effect of killing dummy´s club threat, with clubs being the central suit in the automatic doble squeeze that would have materialized on a passive trump return.
The complete deal:
A 8
J 5 3 2
J 7 5 3
A Q 4
