This Week At North Penn

All games are Club Championship, offering extra points for no extra cost.

Mon, noon

Tue, 10a

Wed, 9:30a

Wed, noon

Thu, 11:45a

Thu, noon

Fri, 10a

Fri, 6:30p

Sat, 10a

Open

0-1500

Bid & Play

Open

0-199

Open

0-750

Open

0-99

Evening Pizza Game (pizza at 6:00, game at 6:30)

Upcoming Special Events

Handicap Swiss Teams

4 Is Enough

0-199

0-750 Swiss Teams

Evening Pizza

Thursday, 04/02

Wednesday, 04/08

Thursday, 04/09

Friday, 04/10

Friday, 04/24 (pizza at 6:00, game at 6:30)

Bid & Play

Ellen and Elaine will lead this week's session which will focus on Notrump hands.

Education

Joann Glasson's Final March Zoom class will be held on Monday, March 23 at 10:00 a.m. See flyer for details.

Deal Analysis

by Bucky Syndor

(sydnoriv@yahoo.com)

Creating Tricks in a Side Suit

Last time we met, I started with the point that frequently both declarers and defenders are trying to create tricks. We looked at how, in a suit contract, declarers can do that by ruffing in the short hand. A second way to create tricks in a suit contract is by setting up a side suit.

It is obvious that this side suit in dummy (opposite declarer’s worthless doubleton),

AKQJ10         32

is worth 5 tricks once trumps are drawn. There is no need to create tricks in this suit.

But as Dummy’s suit weakens, it becomes more of a challenge. How many tricks can this card combination produce?

AKQ54          32

It may supply only 3 if the opponents’ holding divides 5-1 (15% of the time) or 6-0 (1%). Indeed, when the latter happens, and the holder of 6 cards is on opening lead, he will probably lead that suit, which his partner will be able to ruff. Then the suit will, at best, only deliver 2 tricks.

But if the opponents’ holding divides 4-2 (48%), trumping the 4^th round will set up the 5^th  card  for an additional trick. When things are going great and the suit divides 3-3 (36%), the suit is worth 5 tricks.

Since the 4-2 and 3-3 breaks occur 84% of the time, we have good reason to hope for extra tricks in such a holding. (But do not be surprised when a 5-1 or 6-0 break occurs; that happens slightly more than once every 6 times.)

All this is background for a look at last time’s deal, except this time the ♥A is offside. Here’s the new version:

East is Declarer in a 4♦ contract (deal not rotated) but S, not N, has the ♥A. (Last time we met, the location of the ♥A was reversed, allowing Declarer to make 12 tricks. You can click here and scroll down to see that article.)

Counting losers in Declarer’s hand, the longer trump hand, is what a host of experts including Marc Smith (Bridge Bulletin, Sept 2025, p. 46) advise doing when we are in a suit contract. Notice that Declarer has 3 or 4 heart losers, depending on the location of the ♥A.

Declarer would love to create extra tricks by ruffing two hearts in Dummy with the valuable ♦J and ♦10, which cannot be overruffed by the opponents. But if the defenders are alert, they will lead diamonds every time they win a heart trick to cut down on the number of ruffs Declarer can get in the short hand.

Declarer already has 9 tricks coming to him—♠A, no hearts, 6 diamonds and 2 clubs. To get more he needs to work on taking care of his 4 potential heart losers. The best way to do this is to go to Dummy and lead up to the ♥K. If the ♥A is onside, as it was last time, Declarer wins 12 tricks since he would be able to ruff his 3^rd and 4^th hearts in Dummy.

After winning the opening spade lead with the ♠A, Declarer needs to cross to Dummy with a club to the ace, preserving Dummy’s valuable trumps as entries. Then he comes off Dummy with a low heart. N plays 2^nd hand low, or possibly splits his heart honors. Regardless, Declarer goes up with his ♥K. But this time the ♥A is offside, and S wins Declarer’s ♥K with the ace. Here is the layout at this point:

It is best for S to return a diamond to try to cut down on Declarer’s chances to ruff hearts in Dummy.

Here it is important for Declarer to play low from Dummy and win in his hand. Normally in playing a suit we play the high cards from the short hand first and then come to the long hand to continue running the suit. But this is an exception; here we are not interested in drawing trumps yet; rather, we want to preserve Dummy’s ♦J10 as high trumps to ruff hearts, as well as to provide Declarer valuable Dummy entries later.

So, Declarer wins the diamond return in his hand and leads a club. This sequence of plays is important: getting them wrong will ruin the plan to win 11 tricks. After winning the ♣K in dummy, Declarer ruffs a club high in his hand.



He then leads a heart from his hand, which loses of course. N or S can win the heart, and once again it is best to return a diamond. Now Declarer can only ruff one heart in Dummy.

This time Declarer lets Dummy win the diamond trick, giving us this layout:

Indeed, Dummy must win the diamond return in order to lead another club for Declarer to ruff, establishing the 5^th club as a winner. Declarer ruffs a heart in Dummy and plays Dummy’s winning club to pitch his other heart loser.

So, when the ♥A is offside, Declarer is able to make 11 tricks, having added a heart ruff in dummy and the 5^th club to the 9 top tricks at the start.

To conclude, on many deals one of the tasks of Declarer, as well as of the defenders, is to create tricks. I’ve now covered two. Part of the fun of the game is learning the vast number of ways that it can be done. Add a “notch” on your convention card every time you learn a new one. Remember that finessing does not count as you learned that early on. But “sophisticated” finesses do. What’s a sophisticated finesse? If I tell you, I’d be stealing a notch from you. I would do anything to help you improve your game, but I won’t do that.



Have fun.

Ask the Expert

Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie Walker. She will forward them to the panel, one will be chosen, and the question and answers will be printed in the following week’s newsletter.

March Birthdays



Beth Bailey

Bonnie Bickman

Debra Brackett

Eileen Brode

Joe Davis

Kurt Engleman

Renata Fisher

Meghan Glendinning

Barbara Gordon

Robert Horning

Robert Kachelries

Andy Kaufman

Andy Levin

Ellen Luchette

Judi Passerini

Barbara Peoples

Carl Perchonock

William Petkun

Phyllis Toegel

April Uhlenburg

Marcia Yanoff

Tony Zacchei