Author Topic: Burns Law Violation - Retaining Trump Control  (Read 1953 times)

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Offline OliverC

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Burns Law Violation - Retaining Trump Control
« on: August 02, 2017, 07:56:44 PM »
I think OCP users are probably guilty of Burns Law Violations more often than most, especially after a 1 !D Opening. That was certainly true on this hand:

Love All, Dealer South
I opened 1 !D on

South
 !S AK
 !H Q95
 !D 732
 !C AQ742

...and that ended the auction. West led the 6 !H , and this is what I could see:

North
 !S J976
 !H J874
 !D A105
 !C 103

South
 !S AK
 !H Q95
 !D 732
 !C AQ742

East won the first trick with the King, cashed the Ace (West showed out and discarded a small Club) and now a 3rd Hearts ruffed by West with the !D 4. Since the likelyhood was that West had at least 4 Diamonds, he was happy to trump as many Hearts as he liked, from my viewpoint. West exited with a small Spade to East's 8 and my King. I suppose it might have been smart at this stage to cash my Ace of Spades as well, but I decided not to (You'll see why it might have been the smart thing to do in a minute LOL).

Instead, I crossed to the Ace of Diamonds (both Opps followed low) and led the Jack of Hearts, discarding a small Club from hand. West ruffed with the !D Queen and then cashed the King of Diamonds (everyone followed low).

The reason why I might have cashed the Ace of Spades earlier was now important, because at this stage West could comfortably have exited with a Spade to my Ace, leaving me with an inescapable Club loser. Of course he could have exited with a Spade regardless, and the point is that I really wanted a Club lead from him here. Getting a Club lead from West was the whole point about the hand to this stage, from my viewpoint. With West having AKxxx in Hearts, I didn't think he's have much more or he'd surely have protected. Maybe not cashing the Ace of Spades was the right thing to do, because now West might be wary of leading another Spade in case I had started with AKx and could win the Jack on table.


Anyway, West let me off and led a Club to Partner's Jack and my Queen. Now I could cash the Ace of Clubs (everyone followed, and ruff a Club with Dummy's last trump. This last trick brought down West's King of Clubs, and East overruffed with the Jack of Diamonds, but it didn't matter, because now I had the last trump, the Ace of Spades and good Clubs.

1 !D making gave us a surprisingly good (if modest) result of +3 IMPs. Not surprisingly, nobody else played the hand in Diamonds and a number of NS Pairs were going down in 1NT or 2 !C , 3 !C and 2 !S . West started with !S Q1042, !H 6, !D KQ84, !C A986, and East with !S 853, !H AK1032, !D J96, !C J5. The Club discard by West on the second Heart proved to be an expensive one.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2017, 08:47:30 PM by OliverC »
Oliver