By Joel Hoersch Editor, District 22 Forum
I’m feeling generous this month, so ... not only are you getting two hands for the price of one ... you will be getting an insight into the workings of the bridge mind of Evan Bailey, who sadly departed this plane of existence in late March.
The first hand will be a double-dummy exercise: How do you defeat a contract of 3Ê, after West opens the bidding with 1Í, East raises to 2Í, and South buys the contract by bidding 3Ê.
West leads a high heart at trick 1, so take over the defense from there.
Í J1043
Ì 105
Ë AJ1097
Ê 75
Í AQ976
Ì AK7
Ë Q2
Ê 1093
Í 5
Ì Q63
Ë 8543
Ê AKQ86
The second hand is simply an opening lead question. In an IMP team game, you hold ÍKQJ, Ì94, ËQJ9, ÊK10976.
Choose an opening lead against 4Í by South, reached on this auction:
| East | South | West | North |
| Pass | Pass | 1Í | 2Ê |
| 3Ê(* L.R.) | Ì | 3Ì | 4Í |
(All Pass)
Stop here and chew on these two problems until you have satisfied yourself that you have given them your best effort; then continue reading.
The two hands involved both myself and John Strauch, who was Evan’s partner for almost three decades. On the first one, John and I were playing as partners, and were using Evan’s Strong Club System.
As West, I led the high heart, and got the deuce from John, showing an odd number. After thinking for a long time, I shifted to the trump 10, not at all certain that was the right line of defense, but with the vague hope of being able to shut out dummy’s diamond suit in one way or another. I had the uneasy feeling that Evan’s spirit was hovering over my shoulder, since one of his most prominent mantras was, “Don’t lead a trump when in doubt; you are only allowed to lead one when you’re not in doubt!”
But I was right to shift to the trump ... in theory anyway, since it is our only hope to beat this hand. Declarer immediately gave up a diamond, dashing my hope that we could kill that suit. John won and led the ÌJ through, smothering the 10, and now we were poised to be able to lock declarer in the dummy with another round of hearts. When he comes off dummy with a spade, John can rise with the king and lead a fourth heart, uppercutting us into a trump promotion.
Neat, huh? But it didn’t quite go like that. We took our spade trick too soon, and when we locked declarer in the dummy he simply ruffed himself off with no danger, then claimed when trumps broke. Operation was a success, but the patient died due to bad timing.
On the opening lead problem, the layout was like this:
Fumie Graves
Í 9843
Ì KJ5
Ë A10872
Ê 5
John Strauch Bette Wrona
Í KQJ Í 2
Ì 94 Ì AQ8732
Ë QJ9 Ë 543
Ê K10976 Ê J42
Joel Hoersch
Í A10765
Ì 106
Ë K6
Ê AQ83
John made the rather obvious lead of the ÍK, hoping to stop some of the ruffs in dummy. From then on it was impossible to beat the hand: diamonds split, and I was able to pitch one of my two heart losers on the fourth round of that suit, so there was nothing to the play.
John was disgusted with his lead. “All I needed to do was lead my partner’s suit, and the hand goes down. I should have remembered Evan’s advice!”
I said, “Yeah, but his specific requirements for opening weak two bids also prevented Bette from getting that suit bid in second seat, so Evan’s partly to blame for that part of the auction.”
That night I dreamed I heard Evan’s voice rolling down from Valhalla: “What are you trying to do, corrupt my partner? I’ll grant you that the trump shift was right on the first board, but since you guys mistimed the defense anyway, it doesn’t count. And then John leads a trump at trick 1 just because it looks so obvious, and blows his chance to beat a vulnerable game.
I just can’t leave you kids on your own for one minute!”