Bridge | 11 May 2024

I was chatting to my friends Alice Coptcoat and Natalie Hoff at the Acol last week, when Alice mentioned that she’d enjoyed Andrew Robson’s recent BridgeCast about a hand he played against Natalie at the Lederer Trophy. ‘Oh, that hand!’ Natalie exclaimed. ‘It was beautiful. I’ll never forget the way he dropped my singleton king, then played every card to perfection before end-playing me.’ I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone quite so elated at the memory of being beaten before, but when a player of Andrew’s calibre pits his brilliant brain against you, frankly it’s an honour.

Natalie (West) led the ♣5, Andrew played low and East (Mike Bell) won with the ♣K. With a probable loser in each suit, prospects were poor. To pick up trumps without loss, it looked like he’d need to play East for the ♠K and ♠J. But when East switched to the ♠3, he paused. East would hardly play low from ♠KJ3: if West held ♠9x it would pick up the suit. While it felt normal to play low, Andrew was keen to play on hearts quickly: perhaps West held four to the ace, and he’d be able to ruff out East’s ♥QJ, or maybe there’d be a squeeze. So he hopped up with the ♠A. He wasn’t expecting West to have the singleton ♠K – that was lucky. Next, he played a heart. Natalie took her ♥A and continued hearts. Andrew won with the ♥K and discarded a diamond. Next he ran the ♠10, then ruffed a heart, East discarding a diamond. If East had a singleton diamond honour left, Andrew could cash the ◆K and finesse. But catering for any singleton, he played a diamond to the ◆A, then a low diamond. There was no point East ruffing, so Andrew won with the ◆K, crossed to the ♣A, ruffed a heart, and at Trick 11, exited with the ◆10.