October 2022 - 50

Newer Players
Lessons Learned
Don't throw your golf clubs
M
y parents had a problem.
As a child, I took sports
too seriously and, to make
matters worse, I was bad at them. For
some reason, they thought teaching
me golf was a good idea. For those
unaware, golf seems like it should be
simple, but managing to consistently
hit the ball where it should go is
incredibly difficult.
After one particularly poor swing
saw my ball go way right into the deep
woods, I tossed my club in anger. My
father, never one to offer conciliation,
said, " You're not good enough to
throw your clubs. " After considering
throwing my next club in his direction,
I decided he was probably right.
In golf and bridge, you can't think
about the bad things-whether it's
a bad swing or play or a bad overall
score.
In bridge, you need to be happy for
the small accomplishments along the
way. Think about the good things you
did or thought about. Did you count
out the distribution? Did you realize
that declarer couldn't hold a certain
card based on the bidding? That's
great! Enjoy those moments rather
than focusing on the mistakes (and
there will be a lot of them).
On this deal, do as much work as
you can. We'll go through it together
and I'll show where you need to take
a break.
Dlr: East  J 10 9 8
Vul: Both k 4 3 2
l A J 4
' A 10 2
 K Q 7 5 2
k A 7 5
l K 3
' K J 3
50 | Bridge Bulletin | October 2022
West North East South (You)
2k 2
Pass 4 All Pass
West leads the kJ, low from dummy,
and East plays the kQ. What is
your plan here?
I hope you opted to win this trick.
Sometimes it's right to hold up to sever
communication, but here we know
hearts are split 1-6 from the auction.
We should win with the ace.
We count our losers: one spade, two
hearts, and potentially one club. If we
make a good guess in clubs, we'll make
it. In order to make a good guess, we
should try to find out more information.
There's no good reason to avoid
drawing trumps here. You play a low
spade from your hand, and West wins
with the ace. It would be nice if West
would lead a diamond or a club for us,
but West exits with another trump,
East following. Good defenders won't
play new suits to help us out.
All right. Now you need to make the
rest of the plan. Do we finesse East for
the 'Q? West? Play diamonds first?
What deductions can you make?
Let's see. We know East started
with six hearts including the K-Q
and two spades. Can East have either
missing queen for their preempt?
Sure. Might they have neither queen?
K-Q-10-9-8-6 is a great suit, even
at this vulnerability, so it's possible.
Good to think about, though, if you
considered it.
If your thought process stopped
here, that's OK. But we want to push
ourselves: What about West? Well,
West has only three cards in the
majors. With 10 cards in the minors,
West is much more likely (all else
being equal) to have either missing
honor because they have more clubs
BY MICHAEL BERKOWITZ
michael@larryco.com
and diamonds than East does.
With that thought, we might be able
to finesse West in either diamonds or
clubs. The problem is that if we lose a
finesse, East will win and take their
two hearts. What about finessing
through East? West can't cash hearts.
That means that you could finesse
clubs into West, and if that loses, you
could still take a diamond finesse as
a backup. Another good thought! Of
course, if both finesses lose, you'll go
down two instead of down one. Head
spinning yet?
What about combining chances
in a safer manner? You can play the
lA K and see if the queen appears.
If not, you can ruff a diamond. Now
you'll know most of East's shape. East
may follow to two or three diamonds,
revealing up to 11 cards in their hand.
You could take a finesse through
West knowing that East has only two
clubs, but ...
There's no reason to take a finesse
at this point. You have to lose two
hearts eventually. Look what happens
if you lose them now (after ruffing
the diamond):
 J 10
k 4 3
l -
' A 10 2
 -
k -
l 10 8
' 9 7 6 5 4
 K 7
k 7 5
l -
' K J 3
East will have to lead either a
fourth heart (giving up a ruff/sluff)
or lead a club to allow you to win
 -
k K 10 9 8 6
l -
' Q 8
October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2022
