The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Dealer: South
Vul: Neither |
North
♠ A 9 8 ♥ J 6 ♦ Q 5 4 ♣ A Q 9 4 2 |
|
West
♠ 10 6 3 ♥ Q 10 5 4 ♦ K 8 ♣ J 7 6 3 |
East
♠ K 7 4 2 ♥ 9 8 3 ♦ J 10 7 6 ♣ K 10 |
|
South
♠ Q J 5 ♥ A K 7 2 ♦ A 9 3 2 ♣ 8 5 |
South | West | North | East |
1 ♦ | Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass |
2 NT | Pass | 3 NT | All Pass |
Opening Lead: Heart Four
“My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me.”
— Emily Dickinson
It is rare to find both tables in a match exploiting the power of the closed hand (i.e., the idea that declarer can put pressure on his opponents by leading toward his hand and not toward the exposed holding in dummy). However, in a recent European Championship we were lucky enough to observe just that.
This hand cropped up in the match between France and Germany in the 1995 European Championship and is a nice example of good play by both declarer and the defense.
Against three no-trump Paul Chemla led a natural if unfortunate low heart, won by dummy’s jack, and it is worthwhile taking a few seconds to consider how one would proceed from here as declarer. Klaus Reps found the excellent shot of a low club from dummy, but Michel Perron played his club 10 in perfect tempo, which held the trick. Back came a second heart, and Reps won the heart ace, to play a second club. He took some time over his decision, but eventually played dummy’s queen (which would only be wrong if Perron had ducked from the doubleton K-10, as indeed he had). Now a third round of hearts left Reps without resource.
The contract and opening lead were the same at the other table in this match. The French declarer also found the low club lead from dummy at trick two, but the German defender rose with the king, and now declarer had no further problems.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
♠ | A 9 8 |
♥ | J 6 |
♦ | Q 5 4 |
♣ | A Q 9 4 2 |
South | West | North | East |
1 ♣ | 1 ♥ | ||
2 ♥ | Dbl. | Pass | 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.
HBJ : What if Declarer plays a second low club ducking all round to put in East again with his presumed King. Sure enough a third heart will come back, declarer taking it with the Ace. Now comes the spade finesse losing to East ( who is now out of hearts). Game over with declarer making 3C, 2S,3H and 1D, with the defence only making 2C, 1S and a diamond in the wash.