BRIDGE
Expert analysis
Susanna Gross
JUST WHEN I think I might be getting good at this game, I meet a true expert who plays on an altogether higher plain. The other day at my club, I wrote down the North-South hands of a slam I had just played. Although I had made it, I felt sure I could have found a better line. A player I hadn't seen before, with leather trousers and curly hair - a dead ringer, in fact, for Brian May from the rock group Queen walked past and glanced at my note for all of two seconds. He then offered me one of the most lucid analyses of a bridge hand I've ever heard. Later, I found out he was the world-class American player Brian Glubok. This was the deal: Dealer South Neither Side Vulnerable 4 A 10 9 8 2
✓ K 4 3 • K 6
• A 10 5 South West North East 14 3, 4V pass 44 pass 4NT pass pass 64 all pass I had a favourable lead: the VA. After rafting, I cashed the 4K, West dropping the 40. I then finessed the 410, and West showed out. I cashed the •K, crossed to the 40A and played the •Q, discarding a club from hand, while East threw a heart. Next I ruffed a diamond, East throwing another heart. I cashed the VK, followed by the +A, then crossed to the 4K and led a club. East was caught in a trump coup: I ruffed with the +9, cashed the +A, and my last card was a heart — East's trump fell on West's win- ner. Note that there was nothing East could do differently to defeat the contract.
Glubok had many points to make, but basically he thought there was a safer way of playing it, which works whenever diamonds break no worse than 4-2: after finessing the 410 at trick 3, I should cash the •K, cross to the •A and lead a low diamond, ruffing in hand. I then exit with the 410. East wins but I make the rest of the tricks (a club and heart disappear on the •Q7). Imagine see- ing that in a matter of seconds! 4Q , A Q J 8 7 5 • J 8 6 4 4 J 6
4 K 4 3 ✓ - • A Q 7 5 3
• K 9 8 3 2 4 7 6 5 ✓ 10 9 6 5 • 10 9 4 Q 7 4
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