A few years ago in a New England knockout, I failed to falsecard from KT in a suit where dummy had Q9x and declarer AJ8xx. It looked like a potential game swing away, but an accomplished player at the other table missed the opportunity also, for a push. Alan Applebaum (who was declaring for our team at the other table) told me afterwards that ever since someone pulled that one against him many years ago, his alertness goes up the minute he picks up a hand with KT doubleton. Seems like a good tip. Like most little points of bridge technique, it didn’t come up for a few years, until…
Playing a compact ko match against some French internationals in Houston, I held QJxx KT Axx Q8xx. White v. red, lho dealer, the auction went P-1D-P-1S-X-XX-2C-X-AP, where the XX was support. Hoping that partner had stuff in hearts, I led a trump, and dummy had xx AJ87x xx KTxx. Dummy played low, partner won the A and led a low spade, declarer winning the K. Declarer led a low heart and I played the K – note that aside from the falsecard possibility, this would be the normal communication-cutting play if declarer held 9x or xx. In fact declarer held Kxxx Q9x xx J9xx. After long thought, he played a low heart to the 9 and T. We cashed our pointed winners and tapped the dummy, and with no hand entry he had to give me two more trump tricks, for down 2, a juicy 500. Notice that double-dummy, my brilliant K lets declarer make an overtrick instead of going down 1 (it gives him a hand re-entry and unblocks the hearts. He had just blown the contract dbl-dummy, less than a second earlier, by blocking the hearts. After H9!, T, J, he can exit with CT and the defense has no answer.) If you make declarer’s H9 a low spot my play would look bad for sure, so I can’t put this on the personal highlight reel without reservations, although it was certainly good fun.
Justice in bridge is very long-term. We won that earlier New England ko match despite the missed opportunity, but the 11 imps won on this hand (vs. 3nt -1) were not enough to win the 12-board match.
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6 comments:
Nice post.
A similar situation can happen when you have Q-10 doubleton.
Dummy: J9x
Declarer: AKxxx
for example (and dummy is on your right)
I have never gotten to do it with KT but have done it with QT a couple of times.
I should point out in Jonathan's defense that in that New England KO, the dummy had Q8x not Q9x so the play is a little harder to find (declarer had the 9).
Thanks for having a better memory than me, Alan. Yes, with Q8x in dummy you have to worry he has Axxxx and would lose two tricks on normal play -- so your trick target is relevant.
Congratulations on finishing 2nd in the NAP in Houston.
Also, can I add that Alan and I go back to college years, he was at U of I and I was at SIU. We met again in Detroit a year ago (also in the NAP).
Though it's been recounted a million times, I figured no discussion of K-T doubleton would be complete without mention of the grand slam that decided the 1975 Bermuda Bowl--Belladonna and Garozzo had an accident, bidding to 7 Clubs with A-Q of trump opposite J98-sixth. After recovering from the shock of seeing the dummy, Belladonna won the lead in his hand and played a club to the ten and queen and then cashed the ace, dropping Eddie Kantar's king. Unlucky for the Americans...Kantar was probably too stupefied by the situation to find the falsecard--if he had played a smooth king, Belladonna would have had a line to cater to it being stiff (failing on the actual lie of the cards). We'll never know for sure what would have happened, but I'm sure Kantar never missed a K-T falsecard chance after that!
Thanks, Drew. In one book -- probably he was joking -- Kantar said when clubs were led he was still hunting for a precious little club deuce in with his spades! He also said he slept with a C2 under his pillow, just in case of recurring nightmares.
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