Tales from the Vienna Woods

Some old friends from Austria needed someone to fill in for the first session of a Swiss teams.

Mentioning Austria one immediately thinks of Vienna, Strauss waltzes, Wiener Schnitzel and the Sound of Music. However, they also have some terrific bridge players, one of them being Andreas Babsch, who proceeded to produce some devastating bridge. Here are a couple of interesting deals:

Dealer: West Vul: None		North
		♠	8 7 4
		♥	A K 6 4 3
		♦	7 4
		♣	8 6 2
West				East
♠	K Q 10 9			♠	A J 5 3
♥	Q 7 2			♥	J 5
♦	Q 8 5 2			♦	K 10 6
♣	7 5			♣	Q J 10 9
		South
		♠	6 2
		♥	10 9 8
		♦	A J 9 3
		♣	A K 4 3

South led the two of spades and declarer won in dummy and played a club to the queen and king. South switched to the ten of hearts and North won with the king of hearts and switched to a diamond, which went to the six, nine and queen.

Declarer drew trumps and played another club, but South won, played a heart to North’s ace and a diamond gave South two tricks in the suit for +50.

Have you spotted where declarer went wrong?

When North plays a diamond Declare must go up with the king. South can take the ace, but cannot then play the suit without giving up a trick. That gives declarer time to set up the clubs for a couple of diamond discards.

This example of a frozen suit seems quite appropriate.

Dealer: South Vul: None		North
		♠	7 6 5
		♥	8 4 3
		♦	9 3
		♣	K 6 5 4 3
West				East
♠	A K 8 3			♠	Q J 10 9 2
♥	J 10 9 5			♥	K
♦	K 10 5 2			♦	A Q 8 6
♣	10			♣	9 7 2
		South
		♠	4
		♥	A Q 7 6 2
		♦	J 7 4
		♣	A Q J 8

North’s gentle psyche paid a handsome dividend as it picked off the suit in which East/West are cold for eleven tricks. 3cx had to go one down, but that scored up well with the +450 recorded at the other table.