C R Y D E R P O I N T 16 AUGUST Contract Bridge by STEVE BECKER “What can defeat me?” is a question declarer should ask himself prior to beginning the play of many hands. The failure to pose this simple question to oneself has led to the ruination of many a makable contract. Here is a typical case. South reached four spades as shown, and West led the king of diamonds. Declarer covered with the ace, ruffed by East, and East returned a club, taken by South with the ace. After drawing two rounds of trumps, South led a low heart to dummy’s queen, hoping West had the king. In that case, after West took the king, South would eventually have been able to discard one of dummy’s clubs on the ace of hearts. But the queen lost to the king, after which South had to go down one, losing a diamond, a heart and a club, plus East’s initial diamond ruff. Which hand to choose? 16 CRYDER POINT COURIER | AUGUST 2015 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM South would have gotten home safely had he asked himself at the outset if there was any way he could lose the contract. He might then have seen the advantage in ducking the king-of-diamonds lead— especially in view of the bidding, which made it very likely that East would trump the ace. He could then also duck the queen, as well as the jack (which he would ruff) if West persisted with the suit. By ducking the first three leads, South would have preserved the 10 winners he started with— five spades, two clubs, the two red aces and a heart ruff in dummy. All he had to do was to recognize that he couldn’t go down if he withheld the ace of diamonds until it could be played in complete safety later on. (c) 2015 King Features Syndicate Inc. CARD-READING Maintaining the Status Quo One of the challenges of Mah Jongg is out of the 50 or so hands on the card, is being able to choose the one that will win. But how many times do you have to decide between possible hands that you think will win? Many!!! The first is when you put your tiles up on the rack and decide on a tentative hand(s). Then, when you get new tiles in the Charleston and possibly again, as the game is progressing, changing your hand is not unusual—sometimes changing it more than once. It’s often not an easy choice and many times there isn’t much time to make a reasonable and winning decision. As the Mah Jongg guru says, “She who hesitates, holds up the game!” In all of these “decision times” there is a commonality.. In other words, the same criteria can/ should be used in all of these situations to make a reasonable decision about choosing one hand over another. As a general rule, my advice is when you have to choose between two hands, choose the hand that’s easier to make. 1 Count the number tiles toward Mah Jongg for one hand vs. the number of tiles for the other. Choose the hand with the greater number. 2 Choose an Exposed hand over a Concealed hand. 3 Choose the hand that has no gaps—-tiles you have that are the start of each combination the hand requires. 4 Choose the hand that requires no Pairs over the hand that requires one or more Pairs. 5 Or choose that hand that requires the fewest number of Pairs. 6 Choose the hand for which you already have the Pair or Pairs required. Follow these guidelines—they will make it easier for you to come to a decision and hopefully improve the ratio of wins over losses. AMERICAN til next time... may the tiles be with you! Reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and Elaine Sandberg. Elaine is a mah-jongg instructor, who has taught the game for Holland American Cruise Lines and at American Jewish University, and the author of “A Beginner’s Guide to American Mah Jongg: How to Play the Game and Win” (Tuttle, $14.95).
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