Bridge
26 October, 2026
When greed is good
When playing in a matchpoints duplicate session, you are always on the lookout for overtricks.
When playing in a matchpoints duplicate session, you are always on the lookout for overtricks. Declarer certainly was on this deal.
As South, you pass as dealer. After a pass by West, partner opens 1♠️, East overcalls 2♦️ and you bid 2❤️. West raises to 3♦️ and partner now jumps to 4❤️. West leads ♦️4.
You ruff in dummy, of course. What next? It appears that with a void in dummy and 4 diamonds in your hand, you can probably manage 11 tricks on a cross-ruff (via 3 diamond ruffs in dummy, 2 spade ruffs in your hand plus 3 top trumps, ♠️A and ♣️AK; you will be left with a losing diamond and a losing club).
However, it's always worth asking yourself if you can do even better. On this deal, if clubs break 3-2 you won't need to ruff more than 2 diamonds in dummy, because you would be able to discard both losing diamonds from hand. The only problem with that idea is that to establish the clubs, you need to duck one round. However, you can't afford to draw trumps first because if you then duck a club, you will lose not one but two diamonds.
The solution is to duck a club at trick 2. This was the full deal:
Upon winning the club trick, East is likely to return a trump, but that doesn't matter. You come to hand with ♣️A, ruff a diamond, cash ♠️A and ruff a spade, draw trumps and finally lead a club to dummy's king to claim another 3 tricks. Making 12!
Of course West could have ruined your timing by leading ♠️K. And if the outstanding clubs had not divided 3-2 you might even have gone down, so the greedy line was not without risk. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained …
At matchpoints, sometimes you should be prepared to risk a sure overtrick to be able to make an extra overtrick.
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Rakesh Kumar
The Southern Highlands Bridge Club runs three duplicate sessions every week (Mon 1:00 pm, Wed 6:30 pm, Sat 1:00 pm) at the East Bowral Community Centre. Highlands players and visitors welcome!
For more information: https://shbc.bridgeaustralia.org
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