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Bridge:The
Vital Principles
Freddie North
ISBN 0 7134 8015 7, 128 pages £8.99 - Available From Batsford
Books
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The object of the 69
problem hands in this book is to equip the Intermediate player
with sufficient technical skill to cope with the everyday problems
of play. Exotic coups that occur every blue moon have no place here.
The themes include
unblocking, ruffing in dummy, setting up dummy's suit, elimination,
cross-ruff, coup en passant, loser on loser, avoidance play, safety
play and many more. Each answer is followed by a description of
the principle involved.
The technique illustrated
below is one that is often neglected, but is one that it is worth
adding to your repertoire. Cover up the East/West hands and try
to make 4
as South:
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J 9 |
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K 8 4 |
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Q J 10
5 |
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K Q 9
3 |
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K 10 7
3 |
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8 6 5 4
2 |
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9 |
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Q 5 2 |
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A K 8 7 4 3 |
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9 2 |
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A 8 |
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6 4 2 |
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A Q |
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A J 10 7 6 3 |
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6 |
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J 10 7 5 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 |
Pass |
Pass |
| 1
|
Pass |
2
|
Pass |
| 3
|
Pass |
4 |
All Pass |
West leads the A,
East following with the nine. West now plays the ace and eight of clubs,
East following with the two and four. Plan the play before reading on.
It looks as though West has
a doubleton club in which case declarer can project the play of
the trump suit to his own advantage. When everyone follows to the K
a second heart is played from dummy and when East plays low South inserts
the ten. If West wins this trick he is end-played and must either lead
into declarer's AQ,
or establish a diamond trick for a spade discard.
Alternatively, if the 10
holds declarer can count ten top tricks (in fact eleven tricks can now
be made on a squeeze).
The Principle
It is not good enough to play
by slogans or general rules when special situations arise. In isolation
it is generally correct to play the two top honours with nine cards missing
the queen (eight ever, nine never) but, when one line of action guarantees
a 'no lose' option, then clearly that line must be chosen.
In the present example, if
South plays the A
at trick five he will go down.
Freddie calls this play "the
finesse that can't lose."
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