The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Dealer: South Vul: None		North
		♠	A K Q 7 3
		♥	8 3
		♦	10 6 3
		♣	Q 8 3
West				East
♠	J 5			♠	9 6 2
♥	K Q 10 5			♥	9 7 4 2
♦	Q J 7			♦	K 8 5 2
♣	10 6 5 2			♣	A 7
		South
		♠	10 8 4
		♥	A J 6
		♦	A 9 4
		♣	K J 9 4

 

South	West	North	East
1♣	Pass	1♠	Pass
1 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♥ Queen

“A little learning is a dang’rous thing;

Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring.”

— Alexander Pope

Bridge can be an exasperating game for the less experienced. Just when they finally think they have mastered something, they have to unlearn it.

Today, in a team contest, both Norths exercised good judgment to reach the no-trump game rather than insisting on spades. Although it is a slight overbid, three no-trump is surely much more likely to make than four spades.

West led the heart queen, in their methods asking partner to encourage if holding an honor. (The king would have requested an unblock of an honor or a count-signal.) Declarer had obviously heard about the Bath coup, for he ducked, thus preventing West from continuing the suit without giving him an extra trick. However, it was not difficult for West to find a diamond switch. Declarer ducked two rounds of this suit before winning the ace and running his spades, but East had the club ace and the long diamond to send the contract down one.

The point of a Bath coup is not only to prevent the defenders from continuing with the suit led, but also to force them to switch to another suit to declarer’s advantage. Here the last thing declarer wanted was a diamond switch.

In the other room South received the same lead, but had no hesitation in winning the first heart, hoping for the suit to split 4-4 or for West to hold the club ace. He could no longer be prevented from making nine tricks: five spades, two clubs and two aces.

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