A CUNNING FALSECARD
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Multiple world champion Sally Brock examines classic problems from match pointed events.
Sally: My favourite board of the session was Board 12. What did you do?
North: I thought we were a bit unlucky. I opened a strong No-Trump and partner transferred into Spades and then bid 3♦. I bid 3♠ to show three-card support, and partner bid 4♦. I cue-bid 4♥ and partner bid 5♦. With Clubs well controlled, I thought I had to bid a slam; maybe I should have bid 6♣ because I had both the ♣A and ♣K, but I was worried about the quality of my trumps so I simply bid 6♠ and there we played. East led a Club and the contract had no chance when Spades were 4-1 with both honours offside.
Sally: Yes, that was unlucky. 6 Diamonds is a much better contract, but at matchpoint scoring it is easy to be tempted by the higher-scoring slam.
What did you do, South?
South: I guess I was a bit lucky. Over 3♦ my partner bid 3NT, not liking his poor Spades. I continued with 4♦. Again, North bid 4♥ but now I could cue-bid 4♠. North cue-bid 5♣, so I leapt to 6♦. And after a considerable pause North passed, presumably thinking that any slam would score well.
Sally: Well bid! How did the play go?
South: I thought I did pretty well actually. West led the ♥Q. I could see that the contract was cold if Spades were 3-2, but if I drew trumps and played Spades from the top I would go down when they were 4-1.
Sally: Your analysis is spot on so far.
South: What could I do to improve matters? I saw that I might need to ruff a Spade high in the dummy. I won the lead and played a Spade to my Ace. Then I played the ♦A, a Diamond to dummy and another Spade. What could East do? He discarded, so I won my ♠K and exited with a Spade. West won but I could later ruff a Spade in the dummy, setting up my long Spade. It would not have done East any good to ruff, as I could still ruff a Spade in the dummy. Is that how you played it? I remember you saying it was your favourite board.
Sally: Actually, I was West.
South: It’s hard to see that West would have had anything to do with anything!
Sally: Our opponents also bid to 6♦. Again, I led a Heart which declarer won in dummy and played a Spade. On this trick I played the ♠9. That persuaded South that Spades were breaking. So instead of pursuing your line, he decided to draw trumps and give up a Spade – except in this case it was two Spades!
South: Wow! Well done.
Sally: These false cards are often hard to find. Luckily for me, South took a long time to decide on his line of play, so I had plenty of time to think about what he was thinking about! He shouldn’t have gone wrong anyway – it could hardly cost to play your line – but he just didn’t consider the possibility of a falsecard.
