{"id":2087,"date":"2011-03-13T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T22:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2013-01-08T21:56:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T05:56:05","slug":"polling-you-52-contract-bridge-end-plays-march-14-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=2087","title":{"rendered":"Polling You #52: Contract Bridge End Plays, March 14, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contract Bridge: Avoidance, Elimination and End Plays<\/h3>\n

Visitors – Click here to view Part 1 of the video commentary<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Free Membership – Click here to view the complete Part 1 of the video commentary<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Premium\/ULTRA – Click here to view Part\u00a02 of the video commentary<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this series, we are going to teach you how to lose tricks.\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 What\u2019s that you say, \u201cI can lose tricks just fine on my own, thank you very much!\u201d\u00a0 Okay, let\u2019s rephrase that teaser with:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of the upcoming lessons will illustrate methods where the declarer may win extra tricks by forfeiting a trick or tricks at the appropriate time and\/or in the appropriate suit (may be void where prohibited, such as playing against your loved ones).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Seriously though, in life and in Bridge sometimes we find it beneficial to offer up a pawn to win a game of chess, to let an opponent take one of our checkers so we can take two or more, to entice an opponent to reveal their assets so we can discover their weaknesses.\u00a0 And so it goes in Bridge, sometimes we gain by using tactics such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Temporarily ducking a winning trick<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Waiting for the right time to deliberately make one or either opponent win a trick<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Offering a losing play to a \u201cnon-dangerous\u201d opponent<\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance, we certainly should not attempt a 50-50 chance on a finesse when we have a 100 percent guarantee of making a trick using another tactic.\u00a0 Of course opponents are all too happy to see us take try unsuccessful \u201cpractice finesse\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s just that partner prefers we discover the winning line of play.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are four hands with suit combinations that illustrate the basic elements of an elimination play based on the finesse.\u00a0 On the first hand, we need one trick to make the contract and are holding:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

J 5 4<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Q 6 3<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Above, our initial odd of taking one trick is 49 percent.\u00a0 Yet if the opponents must lead the suit, we are assured of taking 1 trick.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

A 3 2<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

J 10 7<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

When we are forced to lead this suit, we are limited to one trick 90 percent of the time.\u00a0 However, should the opponents eventually be forced to lead this suit, our chances to make 2 tricks zooms to 76 percent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

K 2<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

4 3<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Taking a simple finesse, we initially have 50 percent chance to make 1 trick with the above hand.\u00a0 However, if East is forced to lead this suit we are guaranteed to win 1 trick with the King.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

A 2<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Q 3<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Provided the opponents do not err during play, here we are limited to 1 trick.\u00a0 But if West is on lead when holding the King and must this suit, we have magically earned 2 tricks from this holding.<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Free, Premium and ULTRA members – please login to view video of additional hand\/s <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/div>\n

Please login or register to view this content.<\/h3>\nPlease login or register to view this content.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Please login or register to view this content.<\/p>\n

Happy Bridge Trails and Tales,<\/strong><\/p>\n

BridgeHands<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contract Bridge: Avoidance, Elimination and End Plays JavaScript needs to be enabled for polling to work. Online Surveys by Constant Contact. \u00a0BridgeHands Members – Please login and scroll down to view the complete Part 1 video Visitors – Click here to view Part 1 of the video commentary Free Membership – Click here to view […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2087"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions\/2089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}