ª J98
© J
¨ AQ1063
§ AJ85
ª void
© KQ109642
¨ KJ
§ 10643
ª AKQ64
© 76
¨ 84
§ KQ72
| East | South | West | North |
| Pass | 1ª | 4© | 4ª |
| 5© | Pass | Pass | 5ª |
(All Pass)
Opening lead: ©K
As you can see, looking at all 52 cards, the big problem on this hand is that the trumps split miserably, and the tapping defense of the first line ensures that the defenders will get a trump trick. However, the declarer will still make his contract, since with the diamond finesse a winner, there are 11 tricks available: a heart ruff, four clubs and two diamonds, and four trump tricks.
But it was the second line of defense which actually occurred at the table. The perpetrator was Dayou Zhou. At 26, Dayou was probably the youngest player in the field, and that diabolical ¨J shift put him in the running for being the sneakiest!
I’m sure that when you were declaring against the heart lead and the diamond shift, you did what every sane bridge player - and Dayou’s opponent – did: she rose with the ¨A, led a trump to hand to ruff the losing heart herself – and recoiled when she realized that now there was no way to avoid losing the heart at trick 1, a diamond, and the trump trick that the bad break dictated. After all, against 99% of the defenders, it would be madness to take the finesse at trick 2 and go down at trick 3, since that jack would be a singleton and the preemptor would get a ruff!
How did this young man come up with such a fine play? Dayou is a serious student of bridge literature, and I’m sure he’s delved into the works of Hugh Kelsey, perhaps the best writer in the field of defense. Kelsey has provided dozens of examples where a smart defender can capitalize on what declarer cannot yet know about the way the defensive cards are lying. Some of his topics are: “Forcing an early guess” or “Removing a declarer option early.”
For Dayou on defense, at trick 2 he knew that the trumps were breaking as badly as possible in his favor, but that the diamonds were lying horribly against him. So he forced an early guess and removed an option early with a bold bluff, and deservedly beat a cold vulnerable game.
Well done, kid!