Stepping Stone of Thunder

This hand is from the recent European Open Championship pairs championship. The hand needs to be viewed as a 3NT hand by West (sorry about that but the table closed down while I was still analysing it.) The play potentially involves two spectacular plays:

1. Days of Thunder: coined by Eric Rodwell it involves switching to an opponents long suit to hamper communications
2. Stepping-Stone Squeze: first analysed by Terence Reese in his classic "The Expert Game" and involves overcoming a blockage by throwing in a n opponent

North opens diamonds and West has a pretty obvious duck after the A and J - fair play to south if this is from AKJ. Now we see play one. If South can imagine a club blockage then switching to a spade creates a blockage in that suit.

This is not the end of the story if West can put South with 4+ clubs with the AH. He runs six spades and has now played 8 tricks. South must come down to either 4 clubs and the AH or 3 clubs and AQ hearts. In the latter scenario the clubs will run but in the former West can unblock the clubs and exit in hearts - thus using South as a stepping stone to the clubs.

Another Everything-Is-Okay Block

The following hand is from the Terence Reese book 'The Most Puzzling Situations in Bridge'.

West leads the K♦ against your 6NT. You have 11 tricks if the spades are breaking with an easily established twelfth in diamonds. How do you play?

Playing Them The Wrong Way Round

Many people are familiar with the tactic of running a long suit to keep control. In my salad days I would have ducked a trump in the following hand. That is fine for teams but now I play a lot more matchpoints.After West leads the AKJ♥, the correct technique is to cash two trumps in the long-trump hand and run the diamonds when the suit does not break. I like to call this play the Everything-Is-Okay Block because I can afford to block this suit if everything is okay.

Speed Of Lightning Play

Another hand from the Junior Invitational in Beijing. I have often wondered whether I was lucky or good on this hand - not that there is anything wrong with that. I received a diamond lead and, through some rather specious reasoning, decided I would prefer to lose a trick to East. I won the A♦ and led the T♣ from hand. This hit the jackpot when West ducked from ♣Qxx.

I am currently dipping in and out of 'The Rodwell Files'.In the section 'Speed Of Lightning Play', I came across the hand below. East was Fredin from Sweden. When he received the T♥ lead, he reasoned that South probably had awkward holdings in the minors. After the Q♥ won, he came to hand with a diamond and led a low club. South ducked and the hand is routine from there. This is a Speed Of Lightning Play, taking advantage of positions where defenders play low quickly to avoid giving away their holdings in a suit.

After seeing the latter hand, I think maybe I made the correct play on the former hand - albeit for the wrong reasons. Do you think I was lucky or good?

Shortshake: Transferring The Ruff

Another play named by Eric Rodwell in the 'The Rodwell Files' and the example is from the Imagination and Technique in Bridge" by Tim Bourke and Martin Hoffman.

West leads the K♠ and East follows with the 2♠ You win the trick and cash the K♦. How do you continue? You have ten tricks with 6♦+2♥+A♠+A♣. If hearts are no worse than 4-2 then you have the entries to establish the hearts. How do you cope with 5-1 hearts?

Good Defence From Singapore

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This defence was easier to find than I first thought. East's 2♣ bid was probably a general game force. West can place him with at most the KQJ♣, QJ♦, and the J♠ outside of hearts. Therefore he must have the A♥ for the 2♣ bid. He still had to find the trumpp switch.

Note if East led the A♥ instead, he must find the diamond switch. Now when south ruffs and leads a spade, West can jump in with the Q♠ to lead another diamond. Dummy only has the K♥ left and thus the Q♥ will be promoted to the setting trick.

This may seem like a very kind hand to display but I have a hand for next week where I called the director on my own partner. He was from the Malay Peninsula and I did not want people thinking I had a bias against that particular area.

Expert Shortcake

The shortshake is a play named by Eric Rodwell in the 'The Rodwell Files' and both these examples come from 'The Expert Game' by Terence Reese.

On the first hand South plays in 6♣ after East has made a pre-emptive overcall in spades - probably no Michael's* in those days. West leads the A♠ and continues with a spade. South discarded a diamond and East showed out on the Q&clubs. South turned to diamonds, playing the AK and ruffing the third round. Now they tried to get back to hand by playing A♥ and ruffing - but West over-ruffed.

To avoid this, at trick two, South must discard a low heart on the K♠.

* I am going with the apostrophe against the spelling from all the resources - et tu Wikipedia?

More Shortshake, LOL

Another play named by Eric Rodwell in the 'The Rodwell Files' and the example is from the books of Terence Reese.

West leads the Q♦. You play low to presere the K♦ as an entry (and in case East is void). East follows to the diamond but discards on the first round of trumps. You have 11 top tricks but the bad trump break means you will need to develop a trick in either spades or diamonds.

More Shortshake

The shortshake is a play named by Eric Rodwell in the 'The Rodwell Files' and the example from the books of Terence Reese.

West leads the J♠. One trick must be loss to the A♣ and possibly one to the K♦. It looks as though only a ruff threatens the contract. How would you play?

Shortshake

Another play named by Eric Rodwell in the 'The Rodwell Files'. The play involves the discard of a non-loser to enable an earlier ruff in the discarded suit. I have located a few more ex libris Terence Reese. I will do one hand per post.

In 4♥ you receive the T♦ lead. If this is a singleton you are probably dead in the water. Can you do anything if it is a doubleton?

My Favourite Hand

The above hand occurred in the Junior Individual in Beijing 2008. I opened three diamonds first in hand and this was passed around. West opened a top spade and, not wanting to set up dummy's Q whilst dummy had an entry, switched to the the Q♥ - after a lot of thought.

You are on the dummy, how would you continue?