April 2017 - 61

Advanced Players

Solutions to Test Your Play

American Bridge
Teachers' Association

f o r E nt r i e s
l
l
a
C
The American Bridge
Teachers' Association
welcomes submissions
for our annual book and
technology awards.
Presentation will be made
at our annual convention,
to be held in conjunction
with the 2017 ACBL
Summer NABC in Toronto.
Winners are determined
based on the value of the
product to bridge teachers
and/or students. A winner
may be selected in each of
the following categories:
Beginner/Novice
Book of the Year
Intermediate to Advanced
Book of the Year
Technology of the Year
(software, media, etc.)
Works published since
May 1, 2016, are eligible.
Reprints will not be
considered unless there
are substantial revisions.
Authors or publishers may
contact Awards Committee
chair, Pat Harrington,
ppharrr@gmail.com for
information on how to
submit an entry.

Problems are on page 59.
Your best bet is to set up dummy's spades for four tricks to go
along with six diamonds plus the
club and heart aces.
Cash the ♦Q to make sure all follow. If they don't, you have to play for
spades to be 3-3 by playing the ♠A K
and ruffing a spade. You'll enter
dummy with a trump and start running spades to pitch heart losers. When
the annoying defender with the long
trumps ruffs in, you'll win any return
and reenter dummy with the remaining high trump (drawing the last enemy trump in the process), and finish
running the spades.
However, assuming both follow to
the ♦Q, duck a spade, the key play.
If the opponents play a club at trick
three, ruff, enter dummy with the ♦A,
ruff a second spade, draw trumps ending in dummy, and run the spades. You
need 3-3 or 4-2 spades, and diamonds
breaking no worse than 3-1. If they
shift to a heart, win the ace, enter
dummy with a trump, ruff a low spade,
draw trumps ending in dummy, and
you wind up discarding all four hearts
on winning spades
Playing to set up hearts, basically
needing a 3-3 split in the suit, is an
inferior line.

Key lesson pointers:
❶ When the dummy has winners with
no apparent entry, perhaps you can
force the opponents to put you in
the dummy. One way is to throw
them in with a trump, even if it
means creating a trump loser.
❷ If partner doesn't say, "Nice play!"
after this one, change partners.
◾

A. East's distribution must
be 4=3=3=3. With 3=3=4=3, he
would have opened 1♦.
B. Cash a second heart and exit with
a third heart, forcing East to win the
trick, and the ball game is over. If East
returns a spade, discard two diamonds
on spades. If East exits a diamond, run
it to dummy's queen. East is marked
with the ♦K given the opening bid. By
giving East a trump trick, you get two
tricks in return. Not a bad deal.

After West cashes the ♥A K, he
plays a third heart to West's queen.
When declarer ruffs, there are two
paths to success: Kantar's proposed
line (the ♠A followed by the ♠K
to get a count on the East hand), or
the readers' suggestion of playing
a club immediately (it seems clear
that West's minor is clubs), with the
possible improvement of playing the
♠A first followed by a club at trick
five.

Entries close on
May 1, 2017.

TYP alternative answer

In the answer to Problem 2 of
February's Test Your Play, several
readers pointed out an equally good
alternative solution:
Dlr: South
♠K52
Vul: Both
♥986
Matchpoints ♦ K 6 2
♣KQ87
♠AQJ73
♥52
♦AQ753
♣6
West

North

2♠(1) Dbl
Pass
3♠
All Pass

East
3♥
Pass

South
1♠
Pass
4♠

(1) Hearts and a minor.

April 2017 Bridge Bulletin

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2017