The Aces on Bridge: Friday, November 4th, 2011

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

 

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

Opening Lead: Club King

“Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,

— Daniel Defoe

Today’s deal features a hand from the Dyspeptics Club. The foursome who make up the game play regularly in fixed partnerships, although it has never been clear to me why South puts up with North’s abuse, or indeed how East can tolerate the vagaries of his partner’s card-play.

Today’s deal is an example of how South’s inconsistent declarer-play could rouse his partner’s ire. Possessed of his usual rock-crusher, South wasted no time in the auction to reach a heart game with the minimum of investigation, and equally spent no time at all in the play of the hand, missing the entire point of the deal. He won the club lead and cashed the ace and king of hearts, loudly cursing his bad luck when trump failed to split.

North, having taken a quick peak at his opponents’ hands, was ready with his response that the only unlucky person at the table was himself — but that he deserved his bad luck for having agreed to play with South. Can you see what he meant?

With no danger of an adverse ruff, South should have directed his efforts to losing only one trump trick. By leading low to the heart king, then crossing back to hand with the spade king to lead up to dummy’s heart jack, South could have insured losing only one trump against any except the most hostile of breaks.

As the cards lay, this approach would have left South with a finesse against East’s 10-7 of trump on the third round.

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.