Sunday, March 20, 2005 6:02 PM

Hand Evaluation - Visualization ( Ducking )

PITBULLS:

Clichés are dangerous in Bridge . “Aces are made to take Kings” or “cover an honour with an honour” are some of these half truths. These clichés are true only when the application of a pattern dictates that this is the right play. Taking Aces quite often assists declarer. Taking aces allow transportation between declarer & dummy to establish suits. Taking an Ace allows timing for declarer or might assist in a guess rather than being deceptive . Taking the Ace of trump might allow declarer to retain control of his trump suit. Taking an Ace might allow declarer to continue with his plan of suit establishment.

I was defending a 2♥ contract with this collection . ♠10xx ♥Q10 ♦Axxx ♣Axxx , the auction went 1♦-P-2♥-P all pass. I decided to lead 4^th best club as the king is most likely on the board or in partners hand on the auction. The board hits with ♠Q98x ♥x ♦KQ10x ♣KQxx , declarer plays the club king which of course wins. Declarer leads a diamond , partner plays the 9 & declarer the jack. Do you take the Ace ? Not a chance as patterns tell you not to. I was playing standard count with this partner so he was showing me two diamonds. Plug this into a pattern so the diamonds are 4-4-3-2 with declarer having 3 of them. So you duck & declarer continues a diamond. You now win your Ace , partner follows through with his echo as expected. You return a diamond so partner ruffs. Partner leads a small heart , declarer plays small & you win the heart 10. You try to cash you club Ace and declarer ruffs. Declarer now has to break spades herself or lead hearts. Either play leads to one down. If you take your diamond Ace prematurely you allow the contract to be made.

Applying patterns are a “good habit” to develop. Actually it is more than that . It is an essential habit to develop. Patterns prevent you from making “silly plays” & not ducking when it is obvious to do so . Almost all Bridge plays emanate from applying patterns first. The board in 3NT looked like this after a 1♥ opener and a 2NT rebid

K	x	Q	x
9		J	x
8		10	x
7		9
x

Partner leads the king of clubs followed by the other club honours which declarer takes with the Ace after holding up twice. Declarer now leads a small spade & inserts the spade 9. Your hand is ♠A10x ♥K10987 ♦xxx ♣xx , you followed to two clubs & discarded a diamond on the other. You win your 10 , return a small heart with declarer winning the queen. Declarer now leads the spade jack , small , small so your play. Apply patterns before taking an honour. Taking an Ace is another trigger to apply patterns The spades are 5-3-3-2 with declarer only have two of them. Taking the Ace would be suicide for the defense as the spades are established & declarer has only one diamond entry. You duck , win 12 IMPS as your partners avoided the 3NT trap & made +620 in spades at the other table.

This bad play was made by a good Bridge player , who said she should have figured it out. This is fallacious reasoning as applying patterns figure these things out for you. Patterns dictate whether you duck or take tricks . Patterns dictate whether you cover an honour with an honour . Patterns , do not leave home or defend without them !

Developing the habit of applying patterns prevent “mental fogs” like the one I am about to relate. An expert led the K of hearts from KQxx against 3NT . A stiff heart jack was on the board so declarer won the Ace with me playing the deuce (upside down count ) . He got in again so should he continue hearts ? I bid a weak jump shift in hearts on this auction. This shows 6 or 7 hearts so applying patterns should be an automatic reflex . Pre-empts are another automatic trigger to apply patterns. The hearts are 6-4-2-1 or 7-4-1-1 so in either case the hearts are ready to roll. Our expert did not apply patterns so he dreamt up an imaginary holding where continuing hearts would be dangerous . Declarer holding A10x opposite the stiff jack so continuing might give up a trick. Accordingly , he switched to a spade so the heart could come though and declarer made +630 instead of -300 and 16 IMPS went sailing away.

When partner switches , is a trigger to apply patterns . Taking an Ace on defense is a trigger to apply patterns. Here is partner in action to defeat a doubled 3♠ contract against Klimo. Klimo is in 3♠X & the board is ♠xx ♥Qxxxxx ♦xx ♣KQx & I led the heart King which won the trick. I switched to the club 9 which is the 1^st trigger to apply a pattern & you may or may not win an Ace which is the 2nd trigger to apply a pattern. Partner’s hand is ♠Jxx ♥xx ♦AJx ♣Axxxx so in his mind he went 5-3-3-2 so he now knows that Klimo has 10 black cards 7 spades & 3 clubs to the jack. This club is the only entry to the board so ducking to cut off communication is very clear. If Klimo errs now he go 2 down for 300. If he leads a diamond partner jumps with the Ace , goes Ace of clubs & small club & gives me a ruff with my stiff ♠King . Klimo does not err though & hooks the spade 10 so I win the King so only one down.