Score N/S: 404 E/W: 356 Dlr: East 54 93 AK943 Q1054 6 KQJ10 J1072 KJ76 AK10872 A74 65 83 QJ93 8652 Q8 A92 South West North East 3      2       2     6

Exhibit #15a. Technique The Play: 1. South leads A. 6, 4, 3. South wins. 2. South leads 2. K, 5, 8. West wins. 3. West leads K. 9, 7, 2. West wins. 4. West leads Q. 3, 4, 5. West wins. 5. West leads J. K, 5, 8. North wins. 6. North leads A. 6, Q, 2. North wins. 7. North leads 9. 10, J, 7. South wins. 8. South leads 5. 10, 4, A. North wins. 9. North leads 4. 8, 9, 10. South wins. 10-13. East wins the last four with high spades. East and West were set. It is always easy to attribute a failed bid to overbidding, but here E/W were desperately trying to recover lost ground. Do you agree with their bids? Could they have done better in the play, either by luckier guessing or by better card handling? Submit your e-mail comments to: You Be the Judge

The Public Responds:

Brandon: YBTJ 15 was much harder than the other YBTJ's!

Maybe that's why we had only two panelists this week. Spades players don't like to embarrass themselves. Now, tell us what you think of the East/West bidding.

Brandon: Summary: Given the situation, the bidding is ok, even though West is short in Spades.

Purple Cow: West bid: Aggressive, but not unreasonable. The singleton spade is a caution flag, but given the state of the match and the huge excess of secondary honors, this call is valid.

East bid: When East bids 6 bringing the total to 13, some second-guessing may be in order. After all, who at the table is most likely to be stretching? West of course. Yet the strong spade suit seems to suggest that the 6-call is reasonable again. Hopefully East gave this some thought before making his bid at least. That eliminates all the nasty accusations and finger pointing. Well maybe doesn't eliminate it, but makes it easier to bear. Unfortunately, both partner's stretching their bid usually spells trouble.

We also warmly endorse the bidding, since all decisions conform to our own quaint notions. West has short spades but great hand texture; and the second bidder should be aggressive. East is entitled to raise the total to 13 because of his strong spades. As for the play, making the E/W bid is as easy as the right guess at Trick 5.

Brandon: Round 5 -- CRITICAL PLAY! North is out of hearts. East has the Ace. West doesn't want North to cut and gain an unexpected trick. Switch suits! Diamonds or Clubs? Pard probably has lots of spades (he bid 6 and has the A, even with the AK that's at least 3 points in Spades, and if he has diamonds he'll get them at the end). Two rounds of clubs have been played, lead them again to see if East can cut and lead spades. Diamonds are probably controlled by the opponents.

The club switch turns out to be the winner. It is likely that West feared he was placing East in a trump/overtrump situation, but another few seconds of thought would show that the risk must be taken. The best hope lies in having East break spades, and a diamond lead simply cannot get the job done. Can East/West still recover?

Brandon: Round 7 -- GAME LOSING PLAY! East has two choices, duck or trump. If East cuts with a card other than AK South can overtrump and lead a third heart which East must follow, resulting in a set. If East trumps with the K, and leads the 10, he will hold South to two Spade tricks. But a South heart lead will still sink him when North cuts. And cutting with the A then playing the K will result in South still making three Spade tricks and the set.

East must duck! If he ducks by discarding the A he can trump the next heart. South had bid 2 for QJxx and that's all he will get if he cuts now.

Purple Cow: Could they have brought this bid home? Yes! Though it would require a quite quixotic play. To properly locate it, it's necessary to note some things from the early play of the hand. Tricks 3&4, North completes a hi-lo echo in hearts, indicating desire for a 3rd round cut. East should file this information away, it may be useful later. On Trick 6, the Q falls under the Ace. East must decide whether this is a true card, since he's going to be put to the test straight away. Trick 7....

What a headache. East can cut, and figures South is waiting to overcut. In such cases, anything can be right, trump low, trump intermediate, or discard. Declarers in bridge often ask themselves, "What can go wrong?" That's the view to take on this.

What can go wrong is, if South can win this trick, as sure as I'm a purple cow, he will lead a heart for North to cut. North's ruff will be the setting trick. East can afford to lose two spade tricks but not three. South, who has shown only the A in the side suits surely has Qxxx for his 3-bid. If North gets his cut, East cannot stop South from eventually winning the Q, and that's three spade losers. So what's the counter? Trumping with a high spade is usually wrong, and this is no exception. This will leave open the possibility of promoting a 3rd spade winner for South (again, what could go wrong?). There is a better solution.

The winning play is to discard the A. South can trump this trick, but now cannot give North his spade ruff (if he does, East overtrumps). When East gains the lead next trick, he will lead a low spade. South can win this one too, but that's it. East still has the AK, enough to pull South's remaining two spades and run the rest of the spade suit for the bid. There is a natural reluctance to pitch an Ace, but here it's the right play. Also, it's worth pointing out that E/W bid the heart suit for two tricks and have taken them. It's better to insure your rightful spade winners, rather than try to take an extra heart trick at this point.

Wow! Throw away an Ace? But our panelists' reasining is perfectly sound. It leaves us gasping. This case is dismissed so we can catch our breath. We still have one more case to hear.

Exhibit #15b. Strategy The Play: 1. North leads 6. A, 4, 9. East wins. 2. East leads 6. A, K, J. South wins. 3. South leads A. 9, Q, 7. South wins. 4. South leads 10. Q, 7, 3. West wins. 5. West leads 3. 2, 6, 8. South wins. 6. South leads 9. 5, 2, 9. East wins. 7. East leads 3. 10, K, 5. West wins. 8. West leads Q. 7, 2, 10. West wins. 9. West leads 5. K, J, J. North wins and the nil is sunk. North's nil is beaten, and we give credit to East/West for a fine defense. Was the unhappy N/S result due to bad bidding, bad play, wrong guess, or merely bad luck? Submit your e-mail comments to: You Be the Judge

Score N/S: 386 E/W: 335 Dlr: West 652 J72 Q54 K762 J43 KQ5 K98 Q953 AK987 63 J7632 A Q10 A10984 A10 J1084 North East South West nil      5       2     3

The Public Responds:

The next case brought in a split decision. The panelists agreed that South did not play at his best, but they disagreed upon what should have been done. First we'll hear the case for deceptive play.

Brandon: E/W played very well. But South could have played better. The one thing South needed to do was keep the defenders guessing as to who had the Aces of Hearts and Diamonds. Get them to lead the wrong suits. Plus by retaining the Aces, South can sever communication between the defenders. It was a mistake for South to play both Heart and Diamond Aces.

Play the 10's or duck. Let the defenders think North may have the A or A and continue those suits. If the defenders can attack clubs they will have no way to communicate once South wins a club trick and plays the 4th Heart or Diamond allowing North to discard the Club King. But the unusual 4-4-4-1 Club distribution was a major culprit.

We like the concept of making the opponents guess, but is it really the proper strategy here? The unimaginative play of leading the top hearts ought to get the job done. Show us how you want to play the South hand.

Brandon: Round 2 - North wouldn't bid a risky nil, with a singleton Heart JQK, play the 4 and duck. Pard wouldn't bid a risky nil with a 7 singleton, will he? [Why not? Wouldn't you?] Or lead with the 8 and hope West wins the trick. If the 8 holds, switch suits. Let them think the Hearts are your weak suit. At the very least mislead the opponents into thinking North may have the A or K and three Hearts. It's not that South can't cover, just that he doesn't want to give away information.

Alas, the 8 lead merely gives West a clear roadmap to the set. Not fooled at all by South's lead (West also likes to lead the 8 from J1098), West wins the Q and makes his only reasonable shift, a low club. West will soon gain the lead again with his second heart honor and, hoping North began with either Kxxx or Kxx, trots out the Q.

Our second panelist tries a different approach.

Purple Cow: North's nil bid is sound, and E/W defended well. Souths have covered better in the past though too. The 4-4-4-1 club distribution set the nil. When the nilling side meets that unhappy distribution, the key is for one of them to get a discard in the danger suit. Of course, no one can know what the distribution is. Still with proper coverage from South, and best defense from E/W, this nil... still fails.

The key to me is, at Trick 3, the diamond shift was poorly reasoned. South should persist in either clubs or hearts. Leading the diamonds makes life easy for the defense. If South had a long, strong spade suit, the diamond lead may be right, but there's nothing to indicate that this lead will be helpful in this case.

Either a club or heart continuation is also fruitless though against best defense. But it does make them work a little harder. East will have to trump in at the proper time, and attack in diamonds (or spades) to establish an entry to Pard's hand for club leads. Either way, with the Q in hand, West will have the opportunity to lead the 4th round of clubs, and resolve matters before either opponent can buy a saving discard.

The lead of the A was an error. The fact that the nil fails against best defense is irrelevant. The A was a key to disrupting communication between the East and West hand, and should not have been released casually. Sure E/W can set this nil regardless, but it's still right to make them work for it.

And it is as simple as that. After winning the A at Trick 2, South merely plays like a beginner and keeps pushing those hearts. If East ever gains the lead to play a low spade or diamond, South simply plays high. West cannot gain the lead in time to set in clubs; South should be able to get off a fourth round of hearts.

East/West do have a trick defense, however. It may not be clear to everyone what the best East/West defense is, especially since West has already thrown a heart honor at Trick 2. He's not allowed to take it back. But further discussion of this deal can become a topic for the Forum.

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