Vision

Tim and Edith have been married for 30 years. They met through Sports, they were both long distance runners. Although they have similar personalities and they are both extremely competitive, this was never a problem in their marriage. Quite on the contrary – they shared the same goals and worked as a team to achieve them.

And then... they learned Bridge. And as wanting to excel was deeply rooted in their character – they found themselves arguing and accusing each other when things went wrong at the bridge table. That brought a bitter taste to their relationship. They wanted Bridge to be a shared passion, an activity they would enjoy together, as a team. They both loved the game, but... they also loved each other... And so they decided to play with different partners. That way they could still go play at the club together, discuss the hands, compete with each other and still enjoy the game.

Today they both played very well on this hand: Tim was West, defending, and Edith was South as declarer.

Dealer South, North - South Vulnerable

Tim, sitting West, lead the ♠6. Declarer took with the ♠A, played ♣AK, ruffed a third Club in dummy and then played a Heart to the ♥J.

Tim paused to think: He then saw the possibility of locking declarer in dummy and promoting his ♥10. So he ducked this trick and allowed South to win with the ♥J.

Declarer continued with the ♥K. Tim won with his ♥A and played his second Spade. Declarer won with the ♠K but now he had no entry to hand to pull West's last trump. He then tried a Diamond – but East took the ♦A and played a third Spade. Declarer is in trouble now.

No matter what he does – the ♥10 will make a trick: If he ruffs low – West overruffs. If he ruffs with the ♥Q – West discards and the ♥10 is good. If he throws a Diamond – West, too, discards a Diamond and East continues with a fourth Spade to promote the ♥10.

Tim was very pleased with his defense and thought there was a good chance to finish first in today's tourney. At the end he went with his partner to see the scores. Edith was already standing by the board with her partner.

Tim was a little disappointed. They were in second place after the couple he just set in 4♥ (Edith was in third). But he got over it quickly and said to his partner (loud enough so that Edith could hear too):

"Well, did we set the winning pair in 4♥? YES, we did! And did we score better than my wife? Yes, we did! So... I'm happy".

Edith didn't remain silent: "Which 4♥ did you set? The cold, unbeatable 4♥?" After 2 seconds it was clear they were indeed talking about the same hand:

"You wouldn't manage to set me. I also got a spade lead, but I used my bridge vision to foresee the threat of a trump promotion, in case trumps are 3-1. So I won the first trick with the ♠K in dummy, played ♣AK, ruffed a club, and played a heart to the ♥J. West tried to hold up once, like you did, and took his ♥A on the second round of hearts. He continued with another spade as you did, but I simply won it in hand and cashed his last trump. I lost only two Diamonds and the ♥A".

Seeing Tim's long face, Edith's partner piped in: "Come on, Tim, don't look so miserable. You are fortunate in real life too to have a wife with such a vision..."

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a married couple, where both are secretly contract killers belonging to competing agencies. Assassins at their job, normal family life at home...

So, what does that have to do with Bridge?

John and Shelly are a married couple who play Bridge together at their local Bridge Club. They are also taking a defense course which has greatly improved their partnership.

Our story begins on the following deal, on which our heroes are defenders. They were the only pair to set the contract:

Dealer South, All Vulnerable

"Ms. Smith" sitting West lead the ♥7 (all the other players in her seat lead a heart). East played the ♥J, South won with the ♥K and tried the ♠Q for a finesse. West followed with the ♠4. East took the ♠K and switched to the ♦J. That way, the defense won 4 Diamond tricks and a Spade.

At all the other tables East continued with another Heart at trick 3 and declarer made 9 tricks: 3 Spades, 3 Hearts and 3 Clubs. After all, the ♥7 lead could have been 4th best, for example from ♥AQ976, and then a Heart back would indeed be the only return to set. At the end of each tourney, the Director liked to choose an interesting hand from the tournament and discuss it after the game. For this tournament he picked this hand for the postmortem.

So he prepared another hand, as below:

On this hand that he prepared, after the ♥7 lead – the only way to set is to play back a Heart, Partner's suit, at trick 3 – The "normal" defense.

Then he showed the hand played in the tournament and invited "Mr Smith" to explain how he found he killing Diamond switch instead of continuing Hearts, like everyone else did.

John explained:
"My wife and I are attending an excellent Bridge class that improved our defense enormously. In one of the lessons on defense we learned about Smith Echo, and that's what we used here, on this hand. Smith Echo means giving a signal to your partner to show them whether you like their lead or not. The signal is given at TRICK 2, after declarer is playing his suit, and only if it is not essential to give count. Defenders signal to each other information about the opening lead: a high card shows interest and encourages partner to keep returning that suit. A low card shows no high cards or a bad suit and suggests a switch. (Dear readers – you can agree with your partner to signal the other way around if you prefer: play a LOW card to encourage and a high card to suggest a change of suit.) So, as my wife played the ♠4 at trick 2, her lowest Spade, I knew she didn't like hearts much and wanted a switch. So I looked at dummy – playing on Diamonds was easy. If her Heart suit was ♥AQ976, she would follow with her ♠9 at trick 2 and I would return a Heart next", he completed his explanation.

One of the players, who had never heard of Smith Echo before, shouted with admiration: "Contract killers!!!", intending to compliment the couple for their nice defense.

However... from that moment on, the whole club started calling them "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", even though they really disliked their new nickname.