The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, December 15th, 2012
by Bobby Wolff on
December 29th, 2012
A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
O. Henry
| North | North |
|---|---|
| East-West | ♠ K Q 4 ♥ Q J 9 6 4 ♦ 8 5 4 2 ♣ A |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 9 8 ♥ K 10 8 7 3 ♦ K J 7 3 ♣ J 9 |
♠ 5 2 ♥ A 2 ♦ Q 10 9 6 ♣ Q 8 6 4 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A J 10 7 6 3 ♥ 5 ♦ A ♣ K 10 7 5 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♥ | Pass | ||
| 1♠ | Pass | 2♠ | Pass |
| 2 NT | Pass | 3♦ | Pass |
| 4 NT | Pass | 5♠ | Pass |
| 6♠ | All pass |
♠9
Three clubs here is a forcing call, asking you to assess your suitability for the suit game or no-trump. Your hand is minimum with no diamond stop so a simple rebid of three spades seems best to me. With ace-fourth of diamonds and a singleton club, a three-diamond bid would make sense, but not here.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ K Q 4 ♥ Q J 9 6 4 ♦ 8 5 4 2 ♣ A |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♥ | Pass | 1♠ | Pass |
| 2♠ | Pass | 3♣ | Pass |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Today's deal is a tester. Against your slam of six spades West leads a trump — which certainly feels like a good start for the defenders, though in fact a low heart lead would have been fatal. With one diamond and six spade tricks, you need to score all five of your clubs, and that simply requires 4-3 clubs. But can you improve on those chances?
The answer is yes, but the play must be precise. Win the spade queen, and when both opponents follow, you lead a diamond to the ace, a club to the ace, and take a diamond ruff. This is followed by a low club ruff (do NOT cash the club king) and the sight of the club jack should alert you to the possibilities of a bad break in that suit.
A diamond ruff, and a low club ruff disclose the bad news. A diamond ruff high and the spade ace reduces everyone to four cards. You have a trump, a heart and the K-10 of clubs, dummy and West have four hearts, and East is down to the doubleton heart ace and the guarded club queen. On the last trump if East pitches a club, you cash two winners; if he throws a small heart away, you lead a heart and endplay him. And if he pitches his heart ace, you lead a heart to the nine and claim, whoever wins the trick!