One of the steadier bridge players in Chennai is Sandip Dang. He is technically competent in all departments of the game. More importantly, his bidding is ‘disciplined'. Watch Sandip in action below:
Contract: Six spades by south. West leads the club ace and continues with the king. Plan the play.
Bidding comment: North bid his hand extremely well; he made a free bid at the two level to show his good heart suit and 10+ hcp, he cue-bid in opponent's suit to show support for partner, and finally the RKC. Not to be outdone, South also bid his hand well, cue-bidding his diamond ace though he was minimum.
Play: Sandip ruffed the club continuation and played a heart to his jack. He cashed a high trump in hand next and played a trump to dummy's ace, west showing out. When he cashed heart ace next, west again showed out. It was a claimer now for declarer could discard his losers on the heart winners, enter hand by a diamond ruff and draw the last trump. The full deal is:
Discussion: Declarer had two strings to his bow, so to speak; one, of the trumps being 2-2 and the other, of the hand with the long trumps having the long side suit. When someone pointed out that the contract would be defeated if west had led a diamond, declarer was quick to reply that he would win the opening lead with the diamond ace, cash heart jack, cash the king and ace of spades in that order. This will be followed by the three heart winners in dummy, pitching two diamonds and a club. Declarer will now play a club to his ten. As West has all the four honours, he will be forced to win the trick. Since he has no trump to return, declarer will be able to ruff his losing club in dummy!
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