The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
| Vulnerable: Both
Dealer: East |
North
♠ 6 2 ♥ K Q J 8 3 ♦ 10 9 8 ♣ K J 6 |
|
| West
♠ 10 7 3 ♥ 9 7 5 2 ♦ Q 3 ♣ 10 9 8 5 |
 |
East
♠ A Q J 5 4 ♥ A 6 ♦ 7 6 5 4 2 ♣ 2 |
| South
♠ K 9 8 ♥ 10 4 ♦ A K J ♣ A Q 7 4 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 1 ♠ | |||
| 1 NT | Pass | 2 ♦* | Pass |
| 2 ♥ | Pass | 3 NT | All pass |
*Transfer to hearts
Opening Lead: Spade three
“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
When you have reached game after a defender has opened the bidding, it still may not be right to play the opener for all the outstanding points. Today’s deal is from the European 2002 Mixed Teams Championship.
In most matches, East opened the bidding with one spade, but South ended in three no-trump. West led the spade three, East inserted the jack — good technique for the defenders to retain communication in the spade suit — and South took the king.
Five clubs, one spade, plus the ace and king of diamonds bring the trick total to eight. Knocking out the heart ace allows the defenders to cash four more spades, so that was not an option.
Many declarers saw matters in a simple light. With only 13 points outstanding, East was favored to hold them all. Therefore, they entered dummy with a top club and took the diamond finesse. That was two down, and no doubt South would consider himself unlucky, but he had missed the point of the deal.
Other more thoughtful declarers appreciated that East would come under pressure on the run of the club suit if he held the missing honors. As it transpired, East needed to find four discards. If these included a spade, then a heart could have been set up in safety.
At the table, East discarded three diamonds plus a heart. Now South cashed both top diamonds and was gratified to find the queen dropping doubleton, though not from East as expected, but from West.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ | 6 2 |
| ♥ | K Q J 8 3 |
| ♦ | 10 9 8 |
| ♣ | K J 6 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 1 ♣ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♥ | Pass | 2 ♠ | Pass |
| 3 ♣ | Pass | 3 NT | 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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact reprints@unitedmedia.com.
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HBJ again : Just a little thought. If the line of play is to run out clubs, only to see East pitch 3 diamonds it is odds on now the Queen is with West : so there’s no option really other to play for the drop. If however East decides to pitches only 2D (and one heart) he has to pitch a spade. So in reality he is utterly squeezed, and the contract will make on a heart thrown in. A curious hand in which declarer can go wrong. East either has to give up a spade winner, or give the game away in diamonds. Now that’s what I call ” being stymied “
Sorry, I meant to say ” declarer can’t go wrong “
Hi HBJ,
First, I ALWAYS appreciate your summations, which allow much greater understanding.
Second, instead of East being between a rock and a hard place, perhaps we can say East is instead between a spade (rock and garden) and a diamond (definitely hard) discard, an impossible dilemma.