Janet de Botton

Bridge | 26 September 2020

issue 26 September 2020

When I first learnt bridge, my teacher (not known as bossy boots for nothing) would thump the table when dummy came down and boom: ‘What is your plan?’. I could hardly say I didn’t know I needed one. When I understood what he meant, things became a little clearer, until he introduced ‘Plan B’, reassessing the situation at some point in the play because things have changed. I was reminded of this as we were watching the final of a strong Online Mixed competition (see diagram).

North’s 3♣ promised some values, enabling South to judge that 6♠ should be reasonable — which it was — and West led her singleton Diamond. Declarer started carefully with two rounds of trumps — noting the 4–1 break — and decided to draw all of them before advancing the ten of Clubs.

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