There are various themes in bridge that one sees over and over. Newspapers columns take a theme and make an article out of it. Playing online bridge today at BBO, I was pleased to find two themes in one deal.
In a robot individual, on Board No. 8 I held:
♠Q ♥A J 10 9 2 ♦A K 2 ♣A Q 7 2.
My robot partner opened 1♣ and right-hand opponent overcalled 2♠. I bid 3♥ and partner raised to 4♥. What now?
I tried 6♣ and partner corrected back to 6♥. West led the ♠4.
I won the ace and crossed to my hand with the ♦A to advance the ♥J. Why did I play this way? It's the percentage play to finesse West for the queen of trumps, so why not take out some insurance against a 4-1 break. A low heart in the East hand is four times as likely as the singleton ♥Q.
The jack held, so I led the ♥10 and both robots followed. Now instead of drawing the last trump, I played three rounds of clubs. If they split 3-3, then I would make seven (it was matchpoints). If West ruffs the second or third round, then I still make six (ruffing my club loser in dummy) and that was the max on the deal anyway.
The payoff is when West has the third trump and four clubs, as above. I didn't think too much about it and was surprised to see I got a complete top on the board.
You can see what all 39 players did if you click here.
That's my favorite play in bridge - ruffing a suit in which you started with 4-3.
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