User:P64/Bridge

off 5 keycards

• Truscott, Alan. "Missing 4 Aces and Trump King, Declarer Still Made a Slam". New York Times 21 Feb 2005. Retrieved 2010-04-02. — irresistible slam missing five keycards

largest penalty

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/27/nyregion/bridge-by-alan-truscott.html?pagewanted=1 1989-06-27 "Bridge; Experimental bids can have their pitfalls. (When the dummy appeared, South burst into laughter.)"

North deals, NS vulnerable. West leads ♠K into the poor declarer after misunderstandings about transfer preemptive opening bids and conventional 4♣ responses. 3S* -- 4C* Dbl; Rdb passed. (South responded 4C to accept the transfer. North redoubled to show a good diamond suit.)

At the table minus 5800 against merely plus 920 was "off the charts".

Journalist leads

• Truscott, Alan. "Bridge; overlooked option". New York Times 16 Dec 1984. Retrieved 2010-04-02. — journalist leads introduced two decades ago (attitude and third/low with survey data)

Truscott 1995-07-17

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/17/nyregion/bridge-135695.html?pagewanted=1

South deals, both vulnerable. West leads ♣A into the opening bidder following 1H 3S; 4D 6C; 6H. (Dummy responded with a standard splinter raise in her singleton and then jumped in her void "showing absolute control of that suit".

East must tap dummy by continuing clubs after winning the diamond ace; the bad trump split then controls the diamond suit (the difference is six diamond tricks or none!). Truscott sympathizes, "it would have been much easier playing Rusinow: The club king would have been led, guaranteeing the ace. As it happens, the traditional ambiguous king-lead would have worked, but only because East has the club queen and is not in doubt."

That may be a poor example hand for discussion of Rusinow leads in the abstract, but a daily bridge columnist merely slips technical points of play into the coverage of deals that are interesting on other grounds too.

The irony is, Charles Goren and Omar Sharif made an exception of defense against slam contracts when they recapped the case for and against standard king from Ace-King. (Toledo Blade 1979-06-15, retrieved from BridgeGuys.) "There is one circumstance where it is usually right to lead the ace from ace-king regardless of which method you use. That is when you are defending against a slam contract. You want to give declarer as little information about the hand as possible. If you decide that you can't cash a second trick in the suit and elect to shift, declarer will be in the dark as to the location of the king [if you never lead it from ace-king]."

P.S. Goren-Sharif close with the half-recommendation, "Perhaps the best of all worlds is the structure of leads suggested by the late Sydney Rusinow. [specified] But that's another story."

Truscott doesn't pull any punches. "Theoretically best, and favored by many modern experts, is the method developed by Sydney Rusinow six decades ago."

Truscott 1981-02-15

BridgeGuys reprint another one, citing both Mike Lawrence and Alan Truscott. West leads the ambiguous king of partner's void and partner must guess whether to trump it or discard a side suit. http://www.bridgeguys.com/Books/LawrenceMichael/TrueBridgeHumor.pdf

South deals, both vulnerable. The diamond opening bidder West leads ♦K into the passed spade advancer following -- 1D X 1H; 2S 3D 3S --; 4S -- -- X.

Truscott 1996-06-22

"Bridge; What do experts worry about at trick one? The location of the club four, that's what." NYT 19960622 http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/22/arts/bridge-033049.html?pagewanted=1

Roudinesco's book is available. He declared the deal at the European championship in April.

West deals, NS vulnerable. West leads ♦K into the notrump opener following -- -- -- 1N; Dbl Rdb -- --; 2D -- -- 2H; -- 4H passed.

"Roudinesco points out situations in which circumstances will modify the plan of play." --such as this auction which placed a long diamond suit at left

The bad club break 4:K1075 is just enough to give East one trick on power: cover the Q862 in succession and the five wins the fourth round. Holding AJ94 against 5:K1073 (rotate the three small spots) declarer would be just strong enough to pick up the club suit on power.

Truscott 2002-01-17

"A Smooth Defensive Move Helped This Slam Succeed" Jean-Marc Roudinesco died last month. The column features a hand he declared in 1969. The suit combinations, not featured explicitly as such, were 6:KJ3 and A105:J64.

West leads ♣4 through dummy's suit following 1H 2C; 3D 3S; 3N 4N; 5H 6H.

Truscott 1982-12-05

BRIDGE; THE SUBLETIES OF SIMPLE SUIT COMBINATIONS featuring the heart suit combination in more ways than one! http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/05/arts/bridge-the-subleties-of-simple-suit-combinations.html

South deals, none vulnerable. West leads ♥10 into the 1N opener and 6H declarer following 1N 2D*; 2H 3D; 3S X -- --; 4C 4D; 4H 5H; 6H. West later wows the crowd by producing ♥Q.

Truscott 1986-10-02

Bridge; Study of Suit Combinations Is Still Making Discoveries twenty-five years after Crowhurst. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/02/nyregion/bridge-study-of-suit-combinations-is-still-making-discoveries.html

To hold trump losers to three?

North deals, both vulnerable. West leads ♥Q into the spade responder following 1D 1S; 2H 2S; 3N 4S.

South should duck two trumps, thereby winning the fourth round with a quack rather than losing all four spade tricks.

Truscott concludes, "If South plays correctly and makes his game, West is left to discover that he would have done better by leading a club."

That's true. Note that the defense cannot prevail if West holds ♠A10 or K10 and prevails with ♠A9, K8, and so on only if East plays a middle spade on the first round, a crocodile coup at trick two.

Truscott 1987-06-24

Truscott, Alan. "BRIDGE; The Expert Can Go Astray In Suit Combination Habits" 1987-06-24

South deals, EW vulnerable. West leads ♠2 through the spade responder following 1H 1S; 2H 3H; 4H

Truscott claims

• ♥ a complete guess if side suits irrelevant
• ♠ 4-3 or 3-4 but no comment on clubs

Truscott 1990-07-04

Truscott, Alan. "Bridge; Matched small tripletons may look uninteresting but they can be illuminating." 1990-07-04

West leads ♥K into the passed responder, guided by a double, following -- -- -- 1D; 1N 2S; 3D 3H (Dbl); 3N

Truscott says that 3N and 4S both depend on 4-3 breaks, one in hearts and one in spades. Late in a close Vanderbilt semifinal the results were 3N+3 and 5D-1.

Truscott 1992-05-21

Truscott, Alan. "Bridge; The Eastern Regional Championships return to a familiar Manhattan home after 14 years". --but featuring a recent deal played locally 1992-05-21

West leads ♠2 into the opening bidder, fourth best, evidently no better than JT72, following 1N 3N

With two diamonds rather than three, there is higher probability West would hold a better suit to lead.

Truscott 1993-05-05

Truscott, Alan. "Bridge; When the 'right' way to play the suit is the wrong way to play the hand". 1993-05-05

North deals, EW vulnerable. Spade overcaller West leads ♠Q following 1D -- 1H 1S; 4D 4N; 5H

The auction suggested that West not East must be short in hearts, if any.