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 South. Neither Vul
A 9 7
A 9 4
Q 2
K J 8 7 2
10 3
10 7 6 2
A K J 5 4
6 4
West
North
East
South
Pass
Pass
1
1
1NT
Dbl1
Pass
2
Pass
Pass
2NT
Pass
Pass
Pass
1 + or good 3 card raise.
First question:
Do you lead the A, asking partner for an attitude (encouraging/discouraging) signal, or the K, asking partner to unblock an honor if he has one or to give count otherwise?
These are your shiny new carding methods. I hope you like them.
Say you lead the A, partner plays the 8, declarer the 6 (with the queen in dummy, partner would normally encourage with as high a card as he could afford if he held the jack or any four cards in the suit). In this case, you simply can’t tell whether the suit is running.
Does partner hold 10 8 7 3 or 9 8 doubleton?
Even if diamonds run, you need one more trick to defeat 2NT, so it can’t hurt to switch before cashing the K.
Should it be a heart or a spade?
Declarer is almost certain to hold a spade guard for his voluntary notrump, but he never said anything about hearts. Besides, he will probably have to give partner whatever he has coming in spades no matter what you do. Hearts may not wait, however. If you switch to a heart, lead the seven to suggest a weak holding.
Declarer must duck. Partner wins the Q, returns the 9 to clear up the lie of the suit. You win the K and cash the third diamond since you will have no further opportunity to do so. Partner shows out but now you have time for a second heart play, and the defense gets three diamonds, two hearts ant the A for one down.
If instead you lead the K (asking for unblock or count), partner plays the nine. This is likely to be shortness, a singleton or doubleton, although 9873 is a possible holding. If diamonds run, they will keep; if the don’t run, a continuation may kill the defenders’ communications. Again, a switch is definitely indicated.
The complete deal:
A 9 7
A 9 4
Q 2
K J 8 7 2
