Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, April 30, 2010

by admin on May 14th, 2010
Dealer: East

Vul: N-S

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

 

South West North East
      1 ♠
1 NT 2 ♥ 3 NT All Pass
       
       

Opening Lead: ♠ 10

“Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.”

— Jonathan Swift

Wales’ two leading teams met in the 64-board final, which featured a husband and wife (Filip and Diane Kurbalija) on opposite sides. The best journalist hand of the match fell to a member of the losing team, Patrick Jourdain, who was declarer.

 

Against South’s no-trump game, the spade 10 went to East’s queen (yes, ducking might have been a better play), and Jourdain ducked. A switch to the heart nine was covered by jack and queen. Now West switched to a low diamond, attempting to cut communication with dummy.

 

Jourdain won with the queen and played a high heart, pitching a diamond from the board. West won and played a second diamond (a club would have defeated the contract, but was not easy to find). Jourdain won dummy’s ace and cashed the diamond king, disposing of a club. He then finessed the spade jack and cashed his two hearts, throwing a diamond from dummy.

 

What could East discard in the four-card ending? If he threw a club, Jourdain would play ace and another club, scoring up the last two tricks in hand with the spade ace and good club. So East came down to a singleton spade. But now Jourdain cashed the spade ace to remove East’s exit card (West throwing a heart), then led a small club. When West played low, Jourdain put in dummy’s nine. East won and had to return a small club, which ran around to dummy’s jack for declarer’s ninth trick.

ANSWER: It looks likely that your side will play five clubs, but it would be premature to jump to game. First of all, repeat the cue-bid in your opponents’ suit, hoping to play three no-trump if partner has a half-stop in diamonds such as jack-third. You plan to bid four clubs next if no-trump looks impractical, suggesting slam interest and club support.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠ A J 7
♥ K J 10 8
♦ Q 6
♣ A 6 5 4

 

South West North East
    1 ♣ 1 ♦
1 ♥ Pass 1 ♠ Pass
2 ♦ Pass 3 ♣ Pass
?      

 

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact reprints@unitedmedia.com.

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