The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, October 9, 2010
| Dealer: West
Vul: N/S |
North
♠ A K 6 ♥ A 4 ♦ 9 6 ♣ A J 9 8 6 4 |
|
| West
♠ 10 9 ♥ Q 8 5 ♦ A K J 8 5 4 2 ♣ 5 |
 |
East
♠ J 7 3 ♥ K J 9 7 3 ♦ 7 ♣ Q 10 7 3 |
| South
♠ Q 8 5 4 2 ♥ 10 6 2 ♦ Q 10 3 ♣ K 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 2♦* | 3♣ | Pass | |
| Pass | Dbl. | Pass | 3♥ |
| Pass | 4♦ | Dbl. | Pass |
| 4♠ | Pass | Pass | Dbl. |
| All Pass |
| *9-13 points, diamonds, unbalanced |
Opening Lead: ♦ K
“The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command.”
— William Wordsworth
These days at the world championships there is almost always a choice of events. Right now in Philadelphia the major events are open teams and women’s teams. But last year there was an open team game as well as separate events for women, a senior event and a transnational teams.
Here are Michael and Debbie Rosenberg at work in the last-mentioned event. Michael’s double of four diamonds was intended as optional, with extra values, and Debbie expected to find a hand that was at least moderately suitable for spades. The opponents can hold their loss to one trick in four diamonds, so it seems right to attempt the spade game, despite the work required to succeed in that contract.
The defenders led two top diamonds and East signaled for a heart. West obediently shifted to the heart five, suggesting three. Debbie needed the spades to be 3-2, and because West had 10 red cards, she placed him with short clubs.
Having drawn this conclusion, Rosenberg now found the fine move of advancing the club jack! Had this held the trick, she would have drawn two trumps with the ace and king, unblocked clubs, and pitched her heart loser on the diamond queen. Whether East ruffed or not, declarer would be able to ruff one heart and throw the other on the club ace.
In fact, East covered the club jack, so declarer took the trump ace and queen, set up the clubs via the ruffing finesse, and made no fewer than 11 tricks.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ | Q 8 5 4 2 |
| ♥ | 10 6 2 |
| ♦ | Q 10 3 |
| ♣ | K 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 1♥ | Pass | 1 NT | |
| Pass | 2♦ | Dbl. | 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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Isn’t continuation of Diamond on 3rd trick will beat the contract ?
Declarer can throw a heart on the third diamond, but ruff by East. Then East will need to return Heart to the bare Ace on dummy (which is probably the soundest choice) and declarer will not have enough entry to go to dummy to establish club since he has to withdraw 2 spades first.
Hi Denis,
Declarer, as you say, discards a heart from dummy and RHO ruffs, then after his return of a heart, Declarer wins in dummy and draws two round of trump (by leading a small one to his hand and then back to dummy) Then declarer does as Debby did, leads the jack of clubs from dummy and if East covers he merely leads a club back to dummy and takes the ruffing club finesse with still a trump entry in dummy to cash the clubs. If East ducks then declarer lets the jack ride and then leads a club to his King, ruffs one heart and discards his other losing heart on the Ace of clubs.
It is good to hear from you again and I hope you are enjoying the game.
of course… sorry I must have been sleepy when I write the comment… Thanks