William S. Root

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William S. (Bill) Root (b. 1923, Miami, Florida – d. March 18, 2002, Boca Raton, Florida) was a professional American bridge player. He represented the United States twelve times in international competition, including the Bermuda Bowl in 1967. He is also the author of several bridge books.

[edit] The jettison play

One of the most famous hands in his books is a 7 No Trump hand which requires very advanced jettison play. High cards often get in the declarer's way, that is they block the effective play of the hand. A solution to these blocking problems is to throw away high cards. This unblocking coup is known as the Jettison Play.

		♠	AQ
		♥	KQJ
		♦	3
		♣	J976542
♠	J102	N W E S		♠	9876543
♥	10874			♥	96532
♦	J752			♦
♣	83			♣	10
		♠	K
		♥	A
		♦	AKQ109864
		♣	AKQ

Win the opening lead of ♠J with the ace, dropping the king of spades. Cash the queen of spades, and jettison the ace of hearts from hand. Now cash the top hearts in dummy and jettison the top three clubs from hand! You can now run the clubs to discard diamond losers.