The Aces on Bridge: Friday, September 25, 2009
Dealer: North
Vul: N/S |
North | ||||
♠ | A K 8 7 | ||||
♥ | A 8 7 4 | ||||
♦ | A 4 | ||||
♣ | A K 8 | ||||
West | East | ||||
♠ | Q 9 5 | ♠ | 6 | ||
♥ | 5 | ♥ | Q J 10 3 2 | ||
♦ | J 9 8 6 5 | ♦ | 10 7 3 | ||
♣ | Q J 10 5 | ♣ | 7 6 4 2 | ||
South | |||||
♠ | J 10 4 3 2 | ||||
♥ | K 9 6 | ||||
♦ | K Q 2 | ||||
♣ | 9 3 |
South | West | North | East |
2♣ | Pass | ||
2♠ | Pass | 3♠ | Pass |
3 NT | Pass | 6♠ | All Pass |
Opening Lead:♣Q
“We can’t afford the wrath of Heaven. We survived a deluge by the skin of our teeth, but an economic crisis would be disastrous.”
— Friedrich Durrenmatt
Just because your main chance of success in a contract fails to materialize, there is no excuse for failing to keep your head and looking for other possibilities.
Cover up the East-West hands and plan the play in six spades on the lead of the club queen, won by the king.
Superficially, it looks as if the contract depends on the play of the spade suit. So after winning the club king, you cash the ace and king of spades. This is the correct play in the suit, although the calculations are so close that if you know East has a long suit, the second-round finesse becomes the percentage play.
Much to your annoyance, East shows out on the second round and the slam seems doomed. However, your remaining chance is that West began life with ether a singleton or a doubleton heart, not that unlikely a shot. Take your diamonds, discarding a club from the dummy, and then cash your clubs and the heart ace. Finally, exit with a trump. West can win his queen, but has to give you a ruff and discard. You ruff in the dummy, discarding your heart loser from hand. Six spades bid and made.
If declarer had reason to suppose that East had the heart shortage, he could have won the lead in the dummy, drawn one round of trumps, cashed his minor-suit winners (again discarding a club from dummy), played a heart to his king, and run the spade jack. If East had won the spade queen but had had no hearts to play, then declarer would have again succeeded.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
♠ | J 10 4 3 2 |
♥ | K 9 6 |
♦ | K Q 2 |
♣ | 9 3 |
South | West | North | East |
1♠ | 2♦ | Pass | |
3♦ | Pass | 3♥ | Pass |
? | |||
For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. 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 [email protected].
The suggested line works, but only because West has a singleton heart. He is much more likely to hold a doubleton, in which case you must cash both heart winners before endplaying West.
David,
Of course, you are right. In the text it mentions that line works if West started with a singleton or doubleton heart, but in describing the play only cashing the heart ace, instead of both the ace and king, was mentioned.
Mea culpa. Sorry and a toast to your eagle eye.