Tips from Barnet Shenkin: Deceiving the English
This article is part of a regular series from Scottish internationalist and leading player Barnet Shenkin, exploring fascinating hands, practical techniques and advanced bridge thinking.
Each article breaks down real deals from competition play, offering insights designed to help improving players strengthen their judgement, declarer play and defence.
Deceiving the English
Scotland performed well during the second weekend of the Camrose, winning four matches and losing one very narrowly.
On the hand below, Derek Diamond produced an unusual ploy to pull the wool over the eyes of East-West.
Dealer: North | Vulnerability: East-West
♠ A932
♥ J
♦ QJ84
♣ Q854
♠ Q
♥ AK93
♦ AK952
♣ 976
♠ J108
♥ Q8754
♦ 103
♣ A32
♠ K7654
♥ 1062
♦ 76
♣ KJ10
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crouch | Sime | Forrester | Diamond |
| P | P | P | 2♦ * |
| P | 2♥ | P | P * !!! |
| P |
* Multi 2♦ showing either a weak two in a major or a strong 23–24 balanced hand.
West elected to pass, intending to double hearts later for takeout.
When North bid 2♥, Derek Diamond passed as South.
With partner already passed, he reasoned there was little danger of missing a game contract, while there was every chance the opponents might struggle to judge the auction correctly.
That is exactly what happened.
West suddenly had a difficult problem and passed. Although 2♥ went down five for -250, the result was worth a swing of nine IMPs to Scotland.
In reality, 4♥ by East-West is unbreakable and was bid and made at four other tables for +620.
Declarer has nine top tricks after drawing trumps. A low spade lead establishes a ruffing finesse for the tenth trick, allowing declarer to discard a club loser safely on the second spade.
On a diamond lead, declarer can win, play a spade and later repeat the spade finesse, again disposing of a club loser.
A club lead would present the greatest challenge. Declarer wins and plays a spade. South must then cash two club tricks, after which declarer can ruff a spade and squeeze North in the pointed suits.
The swing was ultimately caused by West’s initial pass.
Tip
With strong distributional hands, “wait and see” can sometimes create bigger problems later in the auction. There are many situations where taking immediate action is preferable to giving the opponents room to manoeuvre.
