Mr. Wolff,
In BWTA, if the minor suit holdings were D A54 and C Q9, would you now bid 3NT in all cases?
Thanks

On the column hand, I would note that once the black suits are gone, the fall of the QD means there is only one diamond loser anyway.

Thus, if West has played some deep game with a diamond holding of Q85, declarer will be surprised when East wins the JD, but all would still be well as declarer’s diamond K10 would both be good.

Replace the N-S minor diamond honors with spot cards and things could get a bit more … interesting.

Hi Clarksburg,

As Professor Henry Higgins said to Liza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” after she was appearing to rid herself of her “Cockney” accent by singing the “Rain in Spain stayed mostly on the Plain”. “By George she’s got it”. YES, with only the diamond ace, but Qx in partner’s long suit, presumably at least 6 cards, the responding hand has more reason to risk bidding game (3NT) than with the actual holding.

In a nutshell, the phantom holding does not guarantee 9 tricks, but by holding the queen of clubs, it figures to solidify partner’s suit (with expected breaks), now requiring probably only, at the most, 2 outside tricks to go with 6 club tricks and 1 diamond trick to reach the goal.

And do not forget that your holding that beautiful queen leaves more room in partner’s hand for an extra trick somewhere else to justify his jump.

Right on hand evaluation is a major hallmark of the truly expert player and this subject suggests that you are definitely on the track to success.

Hi Jim2,

Yes, you bring up an interesting defensive opportunity for a player holding Jxxx in hearts (either East or West) but also possessing the albatross holding of the ace of diamonds. Against an excellent declarer and in order to defeat the hand at its death, he may have to jettison that ace in order not to be endplayed. However, while playing matchpoint duplicate, most declarers (probably including me) will be very reluctant to give up on making 13 tricks (while bidding 6NT) and not throw 2 hearts away from dummy. At IMPs or rubber bridge, not throwing those 2 hearts away is indeed a very inferior way to play this hand, but nevertheless a greedy (but probably necessary) choice.

All the above proves is that real bridge is either rubber or IMP play, but since tournament matchpoint bridge is very popular, in order to do well, we need to sing along with Mitch, and accept it as it is, not what we would want it to be.

Mr. Wolff,
On the subject of matchpoint duplicate versus “real” bridge.
I have started running occasional teams-of-four games (four to eight teams), with hand records provided for learning purposes. The players are just typical average intermediate-level club players from a few Duplicate clubs in our area. They love it, and will often ask “when’s the next team game”!

Hi Clarksburg,

I’m proud of your “pure” approach to our wonderful game.

Another “mother nature” advantage to team games vs. pair games might refer back to birds in a formation, possibly flying south for the winter where their formation “seems to” give each one of them much more lifting power enabling them to fly much longer and achieve traveling results not accomplished by individual birds while flying alone.

Possibly a scientific expert can explain why, but in any event, teams seem to produce a comradeship which results in mutuality in being able to learn in a more enjoyable manner through discussion between people who have been on the same side.

However, be careful in making reference to the above since many players are hooked on “bridge pair games” possibly because all one needs is one compatible partner rather than three.

Thanks for the happy story and for being the reason it happened.

Before playing the last spade and throwing a second heart from dummy, south should cash the ace of hearts! This costs nothing, and allows south to take all 13 tricks if either defender started with a singleton jack of hearts.

Also, when west discards the DQ on the last spade lead, having already discarded his potential long spade winner, it’s reasonable to presume that west has no small diamonds left, and therefore has, along with the DA, all the missing hearts. So, at least in duplicate, south should discard dummy’s last diamond and finesse the H10 to take all the tricks.

OTOH, a clever west, having started with two or three low hearts and thus realizing that declarer could run the suit, might play as described here so as to give the false impression of having long hearts! So I take back the word ‘should’ in my last comment and replace it with ‘might’. I still stand by my earlier suggestion about cashing the HA first, since I see no possible negative side to it.