Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, September 8, 2010

by admin on September 22nd, 2010
Dealer: South

Vul: All

 North

♠ Q 10 6

♥ Q 7

♦ 7 5 2

♣ Q 10 9 6 3
West

♠ K J 7 4 3 2

♥ A 10 8

♦ J 8

♣ 7 5

 East

♠ 8 5

♥ 5 2

♦ K Q 10 9 4 3

♣ K 4 2
South

♠ A 9

♥ K J 9 6 4 3

♦ A 6

♣ A J 8

 

South West North East
1♥ 1♠ 1 NT 2♦
2♠ Pass 3♣ Pass
3♥ Pass 4♥ All Pass
       

Opening Lead: ♦ J

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume;

For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.”

— Walt Whitman

Today’s deal, from the Forbo-Krommenie Nations Cup a few years ago, saw 64 top-class teams from all over the world competing. This deal shows declarer reading the location of the opponents’ cards accurately.

Fred Gitelman was the man at the helm. He had been given an idea of the location of the high cards from the auction. The key to success was to prevent a trump promotion.

West led the diamond jack against four hearts, overtaken with East’s queen, and South ducked the trick. If declarer had won, then when West got in with the heart ace, he would have had a second diamond to play. At that point a third diamond from East would have resulted in the heart 10 being promoted to the setting trick.

At the table, when the diamond queen held, East switched to a spade. Confident that East would not have underled the king, Gitelman won this with the ace and returned a second spade. West took his king and could do no better than press on with a third spade. Dummy’s spade queen was ruffed by East and overruffed by declarer.

Now Gitelman played a low heart, and when dummy’s queen held, he was able to take two successful club finesses before reverting to trumps. The heart ace was the last trick for the defense.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠ Q 10 6
♥ Q 7
♦ 7 5 2
♣ Q 10 9 6 3

 

South West North East
    2♣ Pass
2♦ Pass 2♥ Pass
2 NT Pass 4 NT Pass
?      
ANSWER: Your call of two no-trump was natural and game-forcing. With a really weak hand, a second negative of three clubs was available, so you suggested 4-7 points. Since no suit has been agreed upon, your partner’s call should be quantitative. My best guess now would be to bid slam, offering six clubs as an alternative contract. Partner can always correct to hearts or no-trump as appropriate.

 

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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