The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
by Bobby Wolff on
June 6th, 2013
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Oscar Wilde
| South | North |
|---|---|
| North-South | ♠ K Q J ♥ K 10 7 3 2 ♦ A 8 7 ♣ A J |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 10 9 7 ♥ J 5 ♦ J 9 4 2 ♣ K Q 10 9 |
♠ 4 ♥ Q 9 8 4 ♦ 10 6 5 3 ♣ 7 6 4 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A 8 6 5 3 2 ♥ A 6 ♦ K Q ♣ 8 5 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♠ | Pass | 2♥ | Pass |
| 2♠ | Pass | 3♠ | Pass |
| 4♦ | Pass | 4 NT | Pass |
| 5♥ | Pass | 7♠ | All pass |
♣K
Your partner's double is takeout, but a pass by you here might suggest that you were happy with defending. You cannot risk that; bid two diamonds rather than two hearts because you know RHO has heart length and because partner might have bid a major suit rather than doubling at his second turn.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 4 ♥ Q 9 8 4 ♦ 10 6 5 3 ♣ 7 6 4 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | 1♠ | Dbl. | |
| Pass | 2♣ | Dbl. | Rdbl. |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
A fine bidding sequence propelled South into seven spades here, against which West led the club king. Declarer could count 12 tricks: six trumps, three diamonds, two hearts and a club. There are three possibilities for the 13th trick. One is setting up the heart suit, or East could hold a singleton heart honor, so that West can be finessed for the other. Finally there might be a squeeze on West. For the squeeze to operate, West needed to hold the club queen – likely given the lead – plus both the heart queen and jack. South decided to play for the more likely chance of hearts breaking no worse than 4-2.
As the only way to reach the long heart, should that suit break 4-2, is with a trump, trump needed to break no worse than 3-1. But care had to be taken in setting up the hearts, in case they lay as they did, with West being able to overruff South.
After capturing the club-king lead in dummy, declarer cashed the diamond king and queen and the heart ace — no heart honor appearing from East. Next came a trump to dummy, then the diamond ace, on which South discarded the heart six. Then a low heart was ruffed low in hand, and another trump to dummy allowed a second heart ruff – this time with the ace.
A spade to dummy, collecting West’s last trump in the process, was followed by the heart king and 10, on which South’s two losing clubs departed.