The Art of Ducking
by Bernard Marcoux, Montreal
A bridge table is always a small theatre where we can see
characters of all sorts.
North-South or East-West, you see go
by... the Happy one, the Aggressive, the Nervous, the Arrogant, the
Professor,
etc. And then there is the Expert:
the-one-who-once-was-an-expert;
the-one-who-wants-you-to-think-he's-an-
expert;
the-one-whom-everybody-thinks-he's-an-expert, etc. There is
also the Beginner: the-one-who-apologises-
for-being-a-Beginner;
the one-who-wants-you-to-think-he's-still-a-Beginner; the-one-who-still-plays-with-the-
beginners-because-he-doesn't-send-his-points-to-the-ACBL,
etc.
At the local club, one night, you might see these three
characters:
The first one, West, has been a good player but now he is only
is an Expert-who-is-always-right; he always find
profound
reasoning to justify his mistakes.
His partner, East, once had great ambitions but all she has left
now is pretension.
Between the so-called Expert and the Pretentious, no pair is
possible, they just want to be clever. She is not as
strong as
he is, but she would never admit it. On defence, she questions,
discusses, gets annoyed, cries out; he
makes faces, doesn't
answer, avoids discussion, etc. They have something in common
though: they know the art
of ducking.
This art seems to distinguish the expert from the ordinary
player. To duck is an art, it is the last word in bridge.
North
KJx
QJx
AQ10xx
xx
West
East
Axxx
xx
xxx
Axxx
xx
Jxx
AKQx
98xx
South
Qxxx
Kxx
Kxx
Jxx
The bidding:
North
South
1
1
2
2NT(!)
3NT
Lead: Ace of
Sitting South we have a Beginner. Well, that's what the
Expert and the Pretentious think of her and they don't even
say hello: they already duck.
The Beginner's bidding is, to say the least, aggressive. A
quick look at dummy shows five winners; a second look tells
her she has 6 losers: 4 clubs and the 2 major aces.
Well , anyway , she_tells_herself , let ' s_go ,
my_opponents_look_so_nice.
On the Ace of clubs, the Pretentious puts the 8; the Expert then
plays the King of clubs, 9 from his partner. Here, the
Expert
makes his first deep play: he ducks a club. Declarer takes the
Jack of clubs and plays a small spade: the
Expert, who was not born yesterday, ducks and the King wins.
Life_is_so_beautiful ,
people_are_so_understanding ,
rejoices_the_Beginner.__I '
m_up_to_seven_tricks. Now she lays a small
trap, so
small, childish: she plays Queen of hearts from dummy: the
Pretentious, all at showing her superiority, ducks: 8
tricks.
The Beginner, starting to feel respect for those altruistic
souls, thinks: she has ducked once, she may duck twice.
Jack of
hearts from dummy: the Pretentious, keeping her cool . . . and
her Ace of hearts, ducks again. To duck
once
was already a superior play, but what can you say about the
second duck?
Good_heavens , reflects_the_Beginner , there_are_no_aces_in_this_game. Declarer is starting to wonder what is
happening, it seems
there are no aces in this deck. She even thinks of calling the
Director. We can see that she
doesn't understand the expert's
play: To play your Aces, how vulgar!
would have said the Pretentious.
But now, the Beginner, having received four tricks by gracious
ducks, and before calling the director, becomes really
vulgar
and cashes 5 diamond tricks: 9 tricks and a cold TOP.
The last two tricks produce spectacular collisions between the
Ace of
,
the Ace of
,
the Queen of
,
the Expert
and the Pretentious, all in front of the Beginner who
is still asking herself where are all those Aces everyone told
her
existed. We can see that she really doesn't understand the
deepness of the expert's play because who in the world
can
reduce 6 winners to 4?
Did_I_make_a_squeeze?
-
Did I make a squeeze? she asks, dazzled.
-
They did it themselves, answers her partner. You have
combined here many techniques: at bridge, there is the simple
squeeze, the double squeeze and the triple squeeze; there is
also the strip-squeeze (No, dear, it's not what you think.).
There is also the ordinary dummy, the dummy reversal and the
double dummy. Here you made a triple dummy plus an auto-squeeze
by East-West, all of which was expressed by Jean de la Fontaine,
a long time ago, when he said: The dum(m)est of the three is
not the one you think.
the_dummiest_of_the_three_is_not_the_one_you_think.
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