Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, January 7th, 2011

by admin on January 21st, 2011
Dealer: South

Vul: N-S

 North

♠ K 10 9

♥ K Q 3

♦ A 8 4 2

♣ 7 5 2
West

♠ 7 5

♥ J 10 5 2

♦ K J 9 6

♣ Q J 9

 East

♠ 8 3 2

♥ 7 6

♦ Q 7 5 3

♣ A K 10 8
South

♠ A Q J 6 4

♥ A 9 8 4

♦ 10

♣ 6 4 3

 

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

Opening Lead: ♣ Queen

“It’s choice — not chance — that determines your destiny.”

— Jean Nidetch

As a student of both bridge and children’s literature, I am always eager to find out how the Three Little Pigs do on their ventures into the duplicate bridge club. Fortunately for me, they tend to occupy the same seat, so I and the readers can compare their performances on the problems they encounter.

 

Take today’s deal, for instance, where all three little pigs declared four spades, and each of them encountered a defense starting with three rounds of clubs.

 

The first little pig, who made his house out of straw, won the diamond shift in dummy and drew trumps, then tried to run the hearts. The unlucky break in that suit put paid to his chances.

 

The second little pig, who made his house out of sticks, drew only two rounds of trumps, then played on hearts. Had the suit broken 3-3, he would have drawn the last trump, of course. His hope was that the player with four hearts would have the last trump, enabling declarer to ruff the heart loser in dummy. Unlucky!

 

The third little pig, who relied on bricks for his house, won the diamond ace at trick four, ruffed a diamond, then drew two rounds of trumps ending in dummy. When they split, he ruffed another diamond, crossed to dummy’s heart king, ruffed the last diamond, then went to the heart queen to draw the last trump, on which he pitched his heart loser. That was 10 tricks and a perfect dummy-reversal.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠ K 10 9
♥ K Q 3
♦ A 8 4 2
♣ 7 5 2

 

South West North East
  1 ♣ Dbl.
Rdbl. Pass 1 ♥ Pass
?      
ANSWER: Your partner has shown extra shape, lack of defense, and a minimum in high cards. On the surface, game is unlikely to make your way, but it is hard to do less than bid two no-trump now. You do have the unbid suits stopped and enouugh for an opening bid. This gives your partner room to define his hand further, or to stop in a partscore.

 

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact reprints@unitedmedia.com.

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