This Week in Bridge
(608) My Favorite Card Combination
© AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 5 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
General
The more bridge we play, the more we run into situations in the play that frustrate us – where we feel that we always get things wrong. In compliment to that, we may find certain card combinations where we know we end up with good boards if they appear. For many players this involves whether they lose a trick to the trump Queen or not! There is a particular card combination that I find elegant – it has resulted in many good results for me over the years. Let’s take a look at my favorite card combination and make sure we have it in our skill set.
My Favorite Card Combination
Here is a common suit we are forced to play.
Example 1
Dummy
♠ KJ43
Declarer
♠ A652
When we have an 8-card fit and we are missing the Queen, we usually take a finesse to try to take the maximum number of tricks – this is the best way to play the suit to win three tricks, as well as giving us a good chance of winning at four tricks. We start by cashing the ♠A and then lead a ♠ up towards the ♠KJ and take the finesse against the ♠Q.
Now, let’s slightly improve the holding by adding the 9 to Declarer’s hand.
Example 2 – My Favorite
If we play this card combination right, there is a 100% line of play to produce three tricks from this card combination. Try it out!
Dummy
♠ KJ43
Declarer
♠ A952
Can we find the winning play?!?
Keep working on it, don’t look down below yet…
It may sound counter intuitive, but the winning play is to start by playing the ♠K. After that we lead towards the ♠A95 and cover whatever card our RHO plays – usually by playing the ♠9.
If the suit splits 3-2, we are home for winning three tricks. If LHO shows out, then our “safety play” has won us three tricks. Also, if RHO shows out on the second round, then we go up with the ♠A and lead back up towards the ♠J to produce our third trick.
This line of play makes it less likely that we win four tricks but gives a 100% certainty of winning three tricks.
Note: We can make a similar play if we have AJxx – K9xx.
Conclusion
This type of play is extremely useful in a team game or when you reach a great contract (like a “thin” slam) and you are not worried about making overtricks. I particularly like this play because it is the opposite of what we normally do (breaking the natural tenace). Make sure you have this card combination in your winning “bag of tricks”.