The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Dealer: East
Vul: E/W |
North | ||||
♠ | 9 8 5 2 | ||||
♥ | K 5 | ||||
♦ | K 8 | ||||
♣ | A 6 5 4 3 | ||||
West | East | ||||
♠ | J 10 6 4 | ♠ | A 7 3 | ||
♥ | 8 | ♥ | Q 10 4 2 | ||
♦ | Q 9 7 3 2 | ♦ | J 10 4 | ||
♣ | Q 10 2 | ♣ | K 9 7 | ||
South | |||||
♠ | K Q | ||||
♥ | A J 9 7 6 3 | ||||
♦ | A 6 5 | ||||
♣ | J 8 |
South | West | North | East |
Pass | |||
1♥ | Pass | 1♠ | Pass |
2♥ | Pass | 3♥ | Pass |
4♥ | All Pass |
Opening Lead:♦3
“The public…demands certainties …. But there are no certainties.”
— H.L. Mencken
In this deal from the Houston North American Pairs last spring, the field played four hearts on a diamond lead. It looks normal to play three rounds of diamonds, ruffing in dummy. Now you cash the heart king, play a spade to your king, and cash the heart ace, finding out the bad news.
Your only chance now is a trump endplay, and you need to reduce trumps twice to achieve that. When you exit with your spade queen, East must win and should not exit with a spade. If he does, you ruff, cross to the club ace to ruff a spade, then exit with a club to collect one of the last two tricks. Instead, East plays a club at the critical moment, and you can no longer ruff two spades in hand.
You may be able to do better, although protecting against 4-1 hearts onside with West having a low singleton trump may be against the odds. Win the opening diamond lead in dummy and play a spade to the king. If it holds the trick, exit with the spade queen. The defenders rate to return a diamond. After that you can ruff a diamond, cash the heart king, then ruff a spade. When you take the heart ace to find the 4-1 break, you can then enter dummy with the club ace and ruff another spade.
You have nine of the first 10 tricks in the bag, can exit with a second club, and will collect a trump trick from your J-9.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
♠ | 9 8 5 2 |
♥ | K 5 |
♦ | K 8 |
♣ | A 6 5 4 3 |
South | West | North | East |
1♣ | 1♦ | 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].