The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, December 19th, 2013
by Bobby Wolff on
January 2nd, 2013
To be alive is power,
Existence in itself,
Without a further function,
Omnipotence enough.
Emily Dickinson
| North | North |
|---|---|
| North-South | ♠ J 8 2 ♥ Q 6 3 ♦ K J 7 6 ♣ 9 5 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ A K 7 5 4 ♥ J 7 2 ♦ 2 ♣ J 7 4 2 |
♠ Q 10 9 6 ♥ A 9 5 4 ♦ 10 4 ♣ A 10 8 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ 3 ♥ K 10 8 ♦ A Q 9 8 5 3 ♣ K Q 6 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | ||
| 1♦ | 1♠ | 2♦ | 3♦ |
| 4♦ | All pass |
♠K
This sort of double is not for penalties. When you start by making a takeout double, you can't turn your hand into a penalty double the next time around. This sequence shows a really good hand (one that would have cue-bid two clubs if the call hadn't been stolen). With extra values but no extra length anywhere and thus no clear bid, you can fall back on the cue-bid of three clubs to show precisely this.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ J 8 2 ♥ Q 6 3 ♦ K J 7 6 ♣ 9 5 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | Dbl. | Pass | |
| 1♦ | 2♣ | Dbl. | Pass |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
One of the pairs fighting for the top honors at the 1998 Cavendish was Bart Bramley, playing with Sidney Lazard. Sidney is one of an elite group of players who represented the U.S. in world championship play in the 1950s. By my count we are now down to a handful of such players, including Ivar Stakgold and Billy Rosen. Bart is a representative of the next generation who has now started a partnership with another of my regular teammates, Lew Stansby.
Bart drew an interesting inference to bring home this delicate four-diamond contract.
On the spade-king lead and continuation, Bramley put up the spade jack to force the queen and to confirm the location of the spade honors. He ruffed, drew two rounds of trumps, then led a club to the king. Now came a third diamond to dummy, and a second club.
East, Michael Cornell, took the ace and played a third club. Bramley won and paused to count up the hand. Since East clearly had both round aces to justify his cue-bid and had also shown up with the spade queen, he was less likely to have the heart jack than his partner — the point being that he might have opened the bidding with that hand, playing a weak no-trump that started at 11 high-card points. So Bart advanced the heart 10, and whether Lionel Wright covered that card or not, Bramley had his 10th trick.