July 2019 - 52

Intermediate Players

Better Bridge with Bergen
BY MARTY BERGEN

martybergen.com

Who has the missing honors?
Here's your chance to try to emulate
Sherlock Holmes.
West

North

Pass
1NT
All Pass

East
Pass
Pass

South
1♠
2♠

♠ J 10
♥A543
♦ 10 5 4 3 2
♣Q9
♠AQ9853
♥ K J 10
♦Q8
♣54
Trick 1: West leads the ♣3. You play
dummy's ♣9 and East wins
with the ♣J.
Trick 2: East cashes the ♣K. West
follows with the ♣2.
Trick 3: East leads the ♠2.
There are 7 missing honors: ♣A,
♣10, ♦A, ♦K, ♦J, ♥Q, ♠K.
My questions are:
⦁ Who has each of those seven honors?
⦁ How will you play the hand?
The answers are below. Before
reading on, I strongly suggest you try
to answer these questions. FYI: Your
opponents are not experts, but they are
not beginners.
1. On opening lead against a suit contract, West would not underlead the
♣A. So East has that card.
2. Based on the important defensive

52 Bridge Bulletin July 2019

principle, cheapest of equals, if East
had the ♣10, he would have played
that card at trick 1. So West has the
♣10.
3. East's first cards played were the
♣J and ♣K. So you now know that
East has 8 HCP in clubs. If he also
had the ♦A, he would have opened.
So West has the ♦A.
4. If West also had the ♦K, he would
have led diamonds at trick 1. So East
has the ♦K.
5. East dealt and passed. You now
know that he has the ♣A K J and
♦K. That is 11 HCP, (not to mention
2 ½ quick tricks). Virtually all players would open with 12 HCP. So you
are now sure that he does not have
the ♠K or ♥Q, and are almost sure
he doesn't have the insignificant
♦J.
6. You have now located all seven outstanding honor cards.
At trick 3, East led the ♠2. You now
have your first decision of this deal.
What will you do?
With eight trumps missing the king,
the obvious play is to finesse. However,
you have figured out that West must
have the ♠K. So it is time to apply a
corollary of "The Rabbi's Rule." If a
finesse can't work, don't take it!
So your correct play is to play the ♠A.
There are times when good technique is not rewarded. Fortunately,
this is not one of them. West gives you
"a look" and plays the ♠K. Well done.
Now what?
With six spade winners and the

♥A K, your contract is now assured.
Not only are overtricks relevant, but
because you know that West has the
♥Q, making an overtrick by finessing
through him is a sure thing. And although greed is a dangerous thing, it is
also true that, as Gordon Gekko stated,
sometimes greed is good.
Winning three heart tricks is good,
but winning four is better. West may
have started with three hearts. Time
to get involved in bridge psychology. If
you lead the ♥J, he will probably cover.
When you capture that with dummy's
♥A, the hearts are blocked, so you are
limited to three heart tricks. Instead,
when you lead hearts, lead the ♥10.
West is far less likely to cover that.
After that wins, if he started with
♥Q x x (or discards a heart), you will
win 10 tricks, and even if this board is
played at many tables, plus 170 should
be a top.
FYI: Here are the opponent's hands:
West:
♠ K ♥Q 8 2 ♦A J 7 6 ♣10 8 6 3 2
East:
♠7 6 4 2 ♥9 7 6 ♦K 9 ♣A K J 7
One last very important thought
regarding East's "defense." You might
not like his trump shift, but that was
not his fatal error. His huge error
was revealing a card you didn't know
he had: the ♣K. He never should
have revealed that. If he hadn't, you
wouldn't know about his 8 HCP in
clubs, so not only would you have
finessed in spades, you would not know
the location of the ♥Q.
◾
http://www.martybergen.com
July 2019

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