The Aces on Bridge: Monday, December 27, 2010

Dealer: North Vul: N/S	North ♠ 9 4 ♥ J 4 2 ♦ 10 3 ♣ K J 10 7 5 3
West ♠ Q ♥ Q 10 9 8 6 ♦ 8 6 4 ♣ A 9 8 6		East ♠ 7 6 3 2 ♥ K 7 3 ♦ A Q J 7 ♣ Q 2
	South ♠ A K J 10 8 5 ♥ A 5 ♦ K 9 5 2 ♣ 4

 

South	West	North	East
		Pass	1♦
Dbl.	1♥	2♣	Dbl.*
3♠	Pass	4♠	All Pass

*Showing three hearts

Opening Lead: ♦ 4

“An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.”

— Sidney Justin Harris

Today’s deal is all about counting. See if you can match declarer’s effort from the finals of a recent U.S. trials.

I thought Roger Bates handled his delicate four-spade contract very carefully, finding a fine line of play. His partner, Ralph Katz, thought the three-spade call was forcing — as would I — so maybe the South hand is not worth more than a bid of two spades at the second turn after the initial double.

The net result was that Bates declared a game that would have been impossible to make on a heart lead. However, on a diamond lead and heart shift (a trump switch would have worked better, but one can understand East’s play), Bates was still in with a chance.

He went up with the heart ace and played a club. West took his ace and tried two more rounds of hearts. Bates ruffed, led the diamond king, ruffed a diamond, then cashed the club king and saw the queen drop from East. If this was a true card, East was known to have started with three hearts, four diamonds, apparently only two clubs, and thus must have four spades. Accordingly, a single finesse in spades would not bring the suit home safely. The only legitimate chance was to find West with the singleton spade queen.

Accordingly, Bates played a trump to the ace and was rewarded when West’s queen fell — four spades bid and made.

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.