Oxfordshire Bridge Association
2009 Schapiro Spring Foursomes
And so to the annual Iron Man contest that is the Spring Fours. Here
are a variety ofr problems, mostly in the play, mostly 4M, amd mostly
got wrong at the table, so you can take a vicarious share of these
masochistic delights.
This year's exercise in ritual humiliation and sleep deprivation took
place, as ever, in sunny Stratford. A couple of hundred middle aged
blokes in glasses squinted at their cards and slugged it out for every
overtrick. I partnered Alan Wilson, playing our newish 2-way Club
system (still mostly Precision) while our teammates were the
unpractised partnership of Rob Procter and John Slater.
These are some of the deals that gave us the most trouble. I fear my
analysis will be more than a little biased, but here goes…
Our first round match was against Scottish international regulars,
Coyle and Mathieson, Silverstone, Hoffman and Teltscher. This was the
exhausting 3rd board of the day…
Problem 1
EW Vul
Dealer S
♠ 6 2
♥ K 10 9 8 6 5
♦ A J 2
♣ K 2
♠ -
♥ Q 7
♦ Q 10 7 6 4 3
♣ J 7 5 4 3
♠ Q 9 8 4 3
♥ A J 4
♦ K 5
♣ Q 10 9
♠ A K J 10 7 5
♥ 3 2
♦ 9 8
♣ A 8 6
You bid unopposed to
4♠
and West leads
♦6
(4th highest). What is your line? (If you play low, East will win the
King and play a trump back. Now what do you do?)
Say you elect to win trick 1 with the Ace and play three rounds of
clubs, ruffing. Then you try a trump to the Jack and West pitches
♦4
.
Next
♦8
to
10
,
2
and
K
.
East (Willie Coyle) goes into the tank for a full five minutes and
finally returns
♠9
.
What is your line from here?
I felt there was a choice of two lines at this point. I could play West
for
♥A
and try a heart to the K, or I could play trumps from the top, forcing
East to win the 5th round and hope he is forced to lead a heart away
from the A. The latter line works. I went for the former and went
off. The question, I guess, is why East has felt it necessary to
sacrifice the possibility of a second trump trick? Maybe it is because
he has no more diamonds or clubs and doesn't want to lead away from the
♥A
?
Is that clear? It looks a bit clearer in retrospect, although not
exactly easy.
