Duck or Grouse by Foxymoron

 

The above picture was taken in a pub with a particularly low beam. It is rumoured that one of the Woodberry members banged his head through not avoiding it, and he cannot remember which pub it was. It has a very good game menu - backgammon, bridge, chess and trivial pursuit maybe.

If you are in doubt whether to duck or not, then generally it pays to duck. Declarer (or a defender) will not be sure of the layout, and may well go wrong. This maxim might have paid dividends on a couple of hands tonight.

Jim O'Donoghue and Iain Macleay breezed into slam against us on the above hands. For better or for worse I had doubled FSF on the South hand, so Chantal led a diamond. My carding here should probably be count but that is often hard to read. When declarer won the ace of diamonds in dummy and crossed to the jack of hearts I had a second chance to signal. What should my heart card mean? The world-class player Krzysztof Martens discusses this in his books and it should be count, but linked to another suit. Here, as West has opened 1H and bid and rebid clubs, he can only have 3 pointed-suit cards. It is crucial for North to know how many spades he has, and South will play hi-low in hearts with an even number of spades, or low-high with an odd number of spades; alternatively the heart carding can be linked to the suit of the same colour, so diamonds in this case. So, here, the seven of hearts might say "I have two spades, don't rise on the first round unless you have six." North can then duck the first spade with confidence and declarer may get it wrong. When North rose at the table, Jim quickly made his contract on a cross-ruff, and did not need the favourable lie in the black suits.

 

It was good to see an old-fashioned auction here. I might have bid 3H on the second round as East, but not giving away information was fine too. As South, I led the queen of clubs, asking for attitude and Chantal encouraged with the North hand. I continued the suit and East won and led the queen of hearts. I instinctively ducked as South as this is a fairly standard situation if partner has Txx or Txxx, and declarer has to be given a guess. East flattered me by continuing with a small heart, playing me to have ducked with Kx, and the ten tricks were worth 60% to East-West. At least I tried. [Don't try this at home as they say, or you will find that declarer has QJ63 opposite A72 and now notices that he cannot pin the doubleton T98 and continues with a small one, making three tricks in the suit]

What were your experiences on these boards? It is your blog, and we could do with some more contributions. Email Andy Conway if you need permission to post.