The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Dealer: North Vul: All		North
		♠	K 10 7 2
		♥	8 4
		♦	8 5 4 2
		♣	8 7 2
West				East
♠	J 6 4 3			♠	Q 9 8 5
♥	7 5			♥	Q 6 2
♦	K Q J 9			♦	10 7
♣	J 9 4			♣	Q 10 5 3
		South
		♠	A
		♥	A K J 10 9 3
		♦	A 6 3
		♣	A K 6

 

South	West	North	East
		Pass	Pass
2♣	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♥	Pass	3♣*	Pass
4♥	All Pass

*Second negative

Opening Lead:♦K

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”

— Mary Shelley

All this month I am running deals from Ron Klinger’s excellent new book, “ Right Through the Pack Again.” The playing cards have come to life and are fighting to revive the Old Master. This four-heart deal features a dialogue between the six and eight of hearts.

“If it wasn’t for me,” said the heart eight, “the Old Master would almost certainly have failed. If you and I swapped places,” he said to the heart six, “declarer figures to lose a heart, two diamonds and a club.”

“Why doesn’t South lose those tricks anyway?” asked the heart six.

“Because the Old Master was playing it, dummy.”

“Well, you needn’t get nasty,” said the heart six and walked off in a huff.

“The lead was the diamond king,” shouted the heart eight after him. “The Old Master took it, cashed the spade ace, and played the heart jack next. What was East to do? If he did not take the heart queen, he would lose, so he took it and returned the diamond 10.

“West overtook, cashed another diamond, and played a fourth diamond. East discarded one card in each black suit, but it made no difference. The Old Master ruffed the fourth diamond, played the trump three to the dummy’s eight, and discarded the club six on the spade king. After a spade ruff, the missing trump was drawn and the Old Master had 10 tricks.”

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact theLoneWolff@bridgeblogging.com. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact reprints@unitedmedia.com.