BRIDGE
What a swing!
Andrew Robson
AN 'advance sacrifice' is an effective strat- egy whereby a player with excellent sup- port for partner but a weak hand makes a spectacular jump in the bidding to make life difficult for the opponents. He does not expect to make the contract, but hopes that the ensuing penalty (should the oppo- nents double) will be cheaper than the value of their game or slam.
So successful was North's advance sacri- fice on this week's hand, that it did not turn out to be a sacrifice at all!
Dealer East East West vulnerable North did not expect to make 6+ though his wild distribution ensured that it would not go many down. East passed his failure to double implied that he would happy for partner to bid on — but West, who had stretched to bid 34 in the first place, did not fancy playing slam and dou- bled.
West's opening lead was VA. It is often a good idea to lead an unsupported ace against a slam, but here a 4 lead (partner's suit) would have been more sensible. He was unlucky that his opening lead proved quite so disastrous. South trumped VA, led a ♦ to dummy's 9, cashed VK, discarding a 4, and led VJ. East played low, but South discarded a second 4. Next he led a fourth V, trumping East's VG with •A. He crossed to •Q and cashed dummy's two established V winners, discarding his last 4 and a 44. He conceded a 4, but had enough trumps remaining in dummy to trump his two last 4s.
He had actually made 6t• doubled and you may have noticed that East-West can make 64. What a swing!
South West North East
14
2* 3+ 6* pass
pass double pass pass pass
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