Page 12 - ABF Newsletter February 2025

But if you consider each individual card, you may notice that leading the }Q is unlikely to cost a trick. If dummy wins the }K (a trick they were always entitled to), you still retain the }A10 sitting over declarer’s }Jx.
This lead also has a lot of deceptive value: from declarer’s vantage point it will look like the suit is distributed like this:
The full deal:
]7643
[ Q 10 }K973 {K83
]AK5 ]J109 [— [AJ7432 } A Q 10 8 }J2 {AJ9642 {105
]Q82 [K9865 }654 {Q7
After the defence wins the top spade and declarer ducks two rounds of diamonds, East is now on lead to push spades through. The defence proceeds to collect a diamond ruff and even endplay declarer in trumps to score the [J.
So why is this hand a fantasy?
}K973 }654
} Q J 10 8
In that case, declarer’s correct play would be to duck
} A 2 twice in the suit, scoring the }K later.
At the table West didn’t play the }Q at Trick 2. We don’t need to discuss the play here. We’ll just say declarer went a bunch down.
We all suffer from bad breaks from time to time, but when was the last time you could say that trumps split 6-0?
A bunch of tricks on defence
Tomer Libman (West) and Damien Flicker (East) pro- duced a neat defence on the following hand:
Dealer East. Neither side vulnerable.
] Q 10 5 4 3 [Q632 }K7
{Q9
]J2 ]AK76
Pairs winners Zara Chowdhury and Liam Minogue
[ A J 10 }AQ53 { A 10 8 7
We won’t talk about the bidding, except to say that declarer found themselves in 4[ doubled.
West led the {A and switched to the ]J, covered by the ]Q and ]K. East cashed the ]A and continued another spade, on which declarer discarded a dia-
]98 [8754 }J942 {J65
[K9
} 10 8 6 {K432
Page: 12
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: February 2025