Deception & Swindles

 

It's a wonderful thing to make a difficult contract on an obscure squeeze, but what really turns on most bridge players is a piece of trickery or chicanery, some deceptive play or false card that steers the defense into the wrong line of play.  In this segment, we show examples of deceptive Declarer play, see also the examples of Deceptive Defense.

 

Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games

 

 

19	♠ AK9 ♥ KJ864 ♦ 875 ♣ Q4	From 13th December, 2006
♠ 652 ♥ A75 ♦ JT ♣ K9862	North West             East           South	♠ QJ843 ♥ 932 ♦ 92 ♣ A73	Dlr     South Vul     E-W
© BES, Inc  All Rights Reserved	♠ T7 ♥ QT ♦ AKQ643 ♣ JT5	South   West    North   East  1♦        Pass    1♥        Pass 2♦        Pass    3♣       Pass 3♦        Pass    3NT   All Pass

 

North’s 3♣ was a variation of New Minor Forcing, investigating a 5-3 Heart fit on the way to 3NT.

 

Against 3NT, East must attack Clubs if the defense is to get 4 tricks.  But East is more likely to start with the 4♠, his 4^th best … Declarer may try a tricky false card here, winning with the King instead of the Nine … he then knocks out the A♥, and hopes that a sleepy West shoots back a Spade, playing Declarer for KQ tight in Spades.  If West falls for this ruse, Declarer will no doubt chortle inwardly as he wraps up 12 tricks.

 

But West would truly have to be dozing to be taken in that way.  Partner led the Four, and West should figure out that there is some jiggery-pokery going on by using any one of these thought processes:

-         Partner cannot have more than 5 Spades, if he led the Four and the Two is in West’s hand, so North has at least 3 Spades, and her K♠ must be bogus (she could have won the trick more cheaply)

-         If Declarer started with KQ tight, then Partner was dealt AJ9843 and the Four is not his 4^th best

-         The Rule of Eleven tells us that North has three Spades higher than the Four … the calculation is: 11 minus Partner’s spot card gives us 7, of those 7 we can see 2 cards higher than the Four in Dummy, two in our hand, that leaves 3 remaining for Declarer’s hand.

If West fell from grace by failing to consider the evidence, then a well-earned top for Declarer thanks to her heads-up false-card.

 

 

32	♠ 7542 ♥ T5 ♦ J762 ♣ 853	From 24th January, 2007
♠ KJT ♥ 96 ♦ T984 ♣ AK72	North West             East           South	♠ A93 ♥ J732 ♦ K53 ♣ Q64	Dlr     West Vul     E-W
© BES, Inc  All Rights Reserved	♠ Q86 ♥ AKQ84 ♦ AQ ♣ JT9	West    North   East     South Pass    Pass    Pass     1♥ Dbl      Pass    1NT     Dbl Pass    2♥        All Pass

                                                        

It looks as if South can score just 4 Hearts and one Diamond (there’s no entry for the finesse), for an unseemly down three.  But South might like to try a little swindle here, if she trusts East’s bidding enough to place him with Jxxx of trumps … she innocently leads the Heart Eight, and West might see no reason to cover this with the Nine … in that case, the Eight forces East’s Jack, the Ten becomes an entry to the board for the Diamond finesse, and South escapes for a triumphant down two!

 

 

14	♠ T95 ♥ A8 ♦ AJ2 ♣ AKQ94	From 7th February, 2007
♠ J64 ♥ KQ96 ♦ T98 ♣ T87	North West             East           South	♠ AKQ73 ♥ 74 ♦ Q43 ♣ J53	Dlr     East Vul     None
© BES, Inc  All Rights Reserved	♠ 82 ♥ JT532 ♦ K765 ♣ 62	West    North   East     South                         1♠        Pass 2♠        3♣       Pass    Pass Pass

 

In 3♣, with the friendly trump break, Declarer has 8 top tricks, and will seek the 9^th from a Spade ruff on the board, but the defense will deprive him of that … the A♠ will be led, hastily followed by a trump shift.  That leaves the Diamond suit as Declarer’s last hope … after the trumps have been drawn, she can either cross to the board for the first and last time to take the Diamond finesse, or else she can duck a Diamond and hope that the suit breaks 3-3.  All things being equal, the finesse is 50% and the break is 36%, and there does not seem to be enough evidence to buck those odds … when you subtract the A♠ and the presumed K♠ from the East hand, both East and West are likely to have about the same remaining number of HCP’s.  Does that mean we’ll take the losing Diamond finesse?  Maybe not.  How about trying a delicious swindle?  Declarer leads the J♦ from her hand, and East might say to himself  “Declarer obviously thinks that I was born yesterday, she must have the Ten, only an idiot would cover here, I’ll play low smoothly, she’ll go up with the King and take the losing finesse the other way”.  How sweet it will be when the J♦ holds the trick, and now Declarer gets 4 Diamond tricks and 10 altogether!  And if East doesn’t fall for the double bluff and covers the J♦?  Then Declarer must play low from the board, hoping for the 3-3 break.

 

 

2	♠ JT75 ♥ K ♦ Q63 ♣ AKJ87	15th August, 2007
♠ Q94 ♥ 973 ♦ J874 ♣ QT4	North West             East           South	♠ A8 ♥ JT6542 ♦ A5 ♣ 953	Dlr       East Vul      N-S
© BES, Inc  All Rights Reserved	♠ K632 ♥ AQ8 ♦ KT92 ♣ 62	West    North   East     South                         Pass    1♦ Pass    2♣       Pass    2♠ Pass    3♠        Pass    4♠ Pass    Pass    Pass

 

 Playing in 4♠, what are Declarer’s options in the Spade suit?  Most of the time she will lose two tricks in the suit (or even 3 on a bad break), and the best chance for just one loser is to lead low towards the King hoping that East started with AQ doubleton (just a 3% chance).  Anyway, that doesn’t work and Declarer loses two Spades and a Diamond.  Here’s how the play might go:

            Heart lead to Dummy’s King

            Spade to Declarer’s King

            Spade to East’s Ace

            East exits with a Heart (Dummy pitching a Diamond)

            Diamond to the Queen and East’s Ace

Now East has no Spades to lead so does best to return a Diamond.  Declarer’s King wins this, and she now cashes winners and cross-ruffs, allowing West to take his trump winner at his leisure.

 

A Delightful Swindle

Perhaps you had a different auction and somehow arranged for North to be Declarer.  Now, the JT75 of Spades are in the closed hand, and Declarer has a better (and far more enjoyable!) way to avoid two Spade losers.  He plays low from Dummy’s K632, hoping that West started with Qx.  If so, 99.9% of the Wests on this planet will play low, the Jack will force the Ace, and the Queen will fall under Dummy’s King on the next round.  Pretty neat, eh?  This play is almost guaranteed to succeed whenever West started with Q4 or Q8 or Q9 (three holdings) whereas the “percentage play” of low towards the King only works with one holding (AQ with East).  And swindles are always so much fun, don’t you think?

 

 

32	♠ T9874 ♥ A8 ♦ AQ ♣ AJ94	November 21st, 2007
♠ 65 ♥ Q63 ♦ K652 ♣ KQT7	North West             East           South	♠ KQ2 ♥ KJ954 ♦ 84 ♣ 652	Dlr     West Vul     E-W
© BES, Inc  All Rights Reserved	♠ AJ3 ♥ T72 ♦ JT973 ♣ 83	West    North   East     South Pass    1♠        Pass    2♠ Pass    Pass    Pass

  

East might well try leading a Diamond.  Here is how a lack-luster defense might allow 10 tricks against a wily Declarer:

            Diamond lead to Declarer’s Queen (West must duck)

            The wily 9♠ is led, East ducks (hoping Partner has the Ten), Dummy’s Jack wins.

            A Club is led, West plays the Queen, and Declarer ducks!

            A Spade is returned to Dummy’s Ace

            Club to the Jack

            A♣ is cashed

Now Declarer leads her last Club, and the defense can get no more than a Club, a trump and a Heart.  Nicely done by Declarer, but West could have done better by splitting his Spade honors at Trick Two, now the defense is assured of a 4^th trick, one way or another.  But credit to North for leading the 9♠, trying to look like someone about to finesse against the Ten.

 

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