Hi everyone,

In yesterday’s column, it was I, who mistakenly wrote under Judy’s name, since presently I am in Schaumburg, Illinois waiting to start today the Senior Trials for Senior representation to the World Championship in Lille, France in late August.

When I did write I forgot that I was using Judy’s computer with her name on the comment page and I do apologize for adding confusion, particularly when I was the one who thought Mike was the same Mike who had written just previously.

However, on today’s hand, although there was no mention in the column about it, what happens if West against 6 spades makes the brilliant lead of the queen of hearts since North’s 5NT bid, the grand slam force, asking partner to bid 7 spades with 2 of the 3 top honors cries out to be void in hearts (otherwise he would never make such an invitation)?

My guess, because of the unlucky division of the minor suits for declarer, that he would go down in 6 spades after trumping the heart lead in dummy. Obviously there was not enough room for that theme plus the message used of going after establishing the diamonds before clubs after the lesser lead of the ace and one spade.

What that proves, at least according to me, is just how very interesting important potential swing hands can really be, and the room for a sheer brilliancy on almost every street corner. At least this hand may get everyone’s mind away from what happened yesterday.

Good luck!

Win!

thanks for all the clarifications, Mr Wolff.
(I was wondering why Judy Kay-Wolff’s style had become so much like Bobby Wolff’s..)
Good luck in Schaumburg!

Hi Mr Wolff,

Best of luck for the trials and a stray thought on today’s column. Some discipline is essential with weak 2 bids. If south is the sort to have open with SK9xxxx and a few bits, or even SJ9xxxxx north is trickily placed and might have to give up on a possible grand slam, settling for 5S as a general try.

Could there be a case for using 5H here as a try, with south owning up to a rubbish suit with 5S, then codified bids above that showing trump quality? Widely varying weak 2 bids can be very effective but, in 1st or 2nd hand, too much license can fix partner.

Regards,

Iain

Hi there, Fascinating hand in that declarer needs two heart discards. Although bad breaks may be likely , he knows he has already got one guaranteed discard in clubs ( possibly 2 or 3 depending on 3-3 or 4-2 break ). But how easy will it to obtain a discard in diamonds . Answer : straightforward providing the suit breaks no worse than 4-2.
So to my way of thinking it makes good sense to try diamonds first, using one club and a heart ruff for entries. Because now you only need only one of the minor suits to break 4-2 to bring the slam contract home.
A real good lesson hand in logical thinking.

Good luck. Enjoy the area while you are there. I used to work a shirt distance from where the trials are being held.

I have had the good furtune to have played with or against two participants in the Senior trials. Kenny Eichenbaum on the Simson team and your teammate Arnie Fisher. I have also played against one of the women in the Women’s trials. What a great game where somebody who just plays for the joy of doing so can compete (not always successfully) against high level competition from time to time.

Hi Mr. Wolff,

I enjoy reading your column almost every day.

In today’s deal (June 1, 2012 or May 18, 2012), I agree with your analysis and comments. However, I feel that there is one more recourse available to the declarer even he started on the wrong foot. After found out 1-5 club break, the declarer could infer that it is quite possible that West holds long diamonds. So he can squeeze the West in red suits. As the cards lie, he will be home.

Wen Tao

Wen Tao –

I missed that!

Declarer would pitch one small heart on the third club honor, (maybe cash one high diamond), ruff a club, ruff the other small heart, ruff the last club, and then run trump waiting to see if West pitched the AH. If not, then cross to the diamonds.

So, declarer essentially played West for 2-7-3-1, but West might have hazarded 4H with that, instead of 3H, as was bid with 2-6-4-1.

I like it!

If the QH is the opening lead, can’t the hand simply be crossruffed? What am I overlooking?

Ted –

I could make the crossruff work, but only double dummy.

What carding play sequence would you use?

Wen Tao: Brilliant comment!
Ted: You are overlooking nothing.
Jim2: Ted’s line is not double dummy but it does require certain distributions of the opponents’ cards to succeed. After ruffing the opening lead of the heart queen, declarer should then cash the ace-king of diamonds (failing if someone has 0 or 1 diamonds unless he also has the singleton ace of spades). If no one ruffs then ruff a diamond. If diamonds are 3-3, he should ruff a second heart, cash exactly one club, and then ruff a good diamond. If west overruffs (or east ruffs in with the ace), the hand is over. Otherwise ruff the last heart, ruff another diamond and play trumps, succeeding unless trumps are 4-0 or the person with the ace of trumps has all 6 clubs and no more than 2 trumps. If diamonds are 4-2 with east having 4, ruff a second heart and hope clubs are 3-3. If diamonds are 4-2 with west having 4, ruff a second heart, CASH EXACTLY ONE CLUB, and continue with the crossruff, succeeding unless trumps are 4-0 or clubs 6-0 or west has 5 clubs and no more than 2 trumps.

I made a slight misstatement. I should have said: if diamonds are 3-3 do not cash any clubs.

to Ted (and Jim2)
while our host is busy with the trials, i might venture answering you behind his back.
When the lead is the H Q, you can’t quite crossruff the whole hand. Ruff the lead, cash top diamonds, ruff a diamond back to hand, ruff second heart in dummy, another diamond ruff back to hand, ruff third heart in dummy and finally one last diamond ruff back to hand. At this point the lead is in the South hand and declarer still has his two small clubs. If he now plays a trump, West will take his ace and stick the lead in dummy by exiting with his singleton club. Which is also what happens when West overruffs the fifth diamond. No recovery. At least, that’s the way I tried to play the crossruff and didn’t succeed.

I especially liked Wen Tao’s contribution. Neat! However, the original lesson from the article still prevails.

Thanks David.
“Cash exactly one club”: that’s the solution for the crossruff to work. I didn’t think about that.

The cash exactly one club was the “double dummy” part to which I referred.

Note that if clubs were 3-3 or 2-4, West would be able give East a club ruff.

Also, since the crossruff line requires diamonds to be no worse than 4-2, then the column line always works when the crossruff would and the column line still has the club suit in reserve for when diamonds are 5-1 or 6-0.

Hi everyone,

Judy and I just returned to our room in Shaumburg and, although thoroughly worn out (we lead our worthy opponents by only 7 IMPs with 30 of the scheduled 90 board match history). I’m very happy to report that almost everyone has contributed accurate comments on the exciting 6 spade hand, so I can just read them and agree.

It’s always pleasant to set most hands with problems straight, but it is even nicer to have all the help you guys provide be right-on, not to mention valuable, to all who read them.

Thanks for the well-wishes which our team will undoubtedly need, before this marathon begins to end.

From me, not Judy, but she instructed me to also send her love.