Audrey Grant has landed a grand slam with her pamphlet Five Trips to Simplify Entries: The Importance of the Link Card ($11.95, www.baronbarclay.com).
How often have you failed to make your bid and found yourself thinking, “There must have been a way”? The culprit may be the inability to reach tricks in hand or in the dummy.
Here’s where the link — a low or high card that acts as an entry to winners — comes to life. A case in point, with South dealing:
NORTH
♠️ 9 5
♥️ A K J 9 4
♦️ K J 9 5
♣️ 9 4
WEST EAST
♠️ K Q J 8 6 ♠️ 10 3 2
♥️ 8 7 6 ♥️ Q 10 5 3 2
♦️ A 7 ♦️ Q 10 2
♣️ 7 6 2 ♣️ 8 3
SOUTH
♠️ A 7 4
♥️ —
♦️ 8 6 4 3
♣️ A K Q J 10 5
The bidding proceeded as follows:
West North East South
1♣️
1♠️ 2♥️ Pass 3♣️
Pass 3♦️ Pass 3NT
Opening lead: ♠️K
As always in a NoTrump contract, declarers should count their sure tricks: six clubs and one spade. How to reach those heart winners on the board?
The answer is by using that little ♣️5 as a link card. Once declarer wins the spade ♠️A, play the ♣️5 to the ♣️9. Now you can win the ♥️A-K before cashing the club winners for nine tricks.
“Tip # 1:Recognize a low card as an entry by keeping a lower-ranking link card,” the Hall-of-Fame bridge teacher writes.”
A high card may have the same function, as this deal illustrates with South dealing:
NORTH
♠️ 6 5 3
♥️ Q 10 7 2
♦️ Q 8 4
♣️ A 9 5
WEST EAST
♠️ 2 ♠️ K 9 4
♥️ 8 4 3 ♥️ K J 9 5
♦️ K 9 6 3 2 ♦️ 10 7 5
♣️ Q J 10 4 ♣️ 7 6 2
SOUTH
♠️ A Q J 10 8 7
♥️ A 6
♦️ A J
♣️ K 8 3
The bidding proceeded as follows:
West North East South
1♠️
Pass 2♠️ Pass 4♠️
All Pass
Opening lead: ♣️Q
You can see possible losers in each suit. A finesse might work to eliminate one, but there’s a surer way. Can you see it?
As implausible as it seems, deliberately lose a trick. After winning the opening lead with the ♣️K (important), unblock the ♦️A, then play the ♦️J as a link card!
By preserving the ♣️A as the only entry to the board, declarer can use it to win a trick and cash the ♦️Q, while discarding a club. Now there are no more club losers, and the contract comes home.
In the absence of club play this summer, consider trying www.bridgebase.com and www.okbridge.com.
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