The Aces on Bridge: Friday, February 21th, 2014
My lodging is on the cold ground,
And hard, very hard, is my fare….
John Gay
| South | North |
|---|---|
| East-West | ♠ K Q 5 3 ♥ J 9 ♦ Q 9 8 ♣ Q 9 7 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 7 ♥ K Q 6 3 2 ♦ J 3 ♣ A J 10 6 3 |
♠ J 10 8 2 ♥ 8 7 5 ♦ K 6 4 2 ♣ 8 4 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A 9 6 4 ♥ A 10 4 ♦ A 10 7 5 ♣ K 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 NT | 2♥* | Dbl. | Pass |
| 2♠ | Pass | 4♠ | All pass |
*Hearts and a minor
♥K
Today’s hand features a frozen suit combination – neither defender can broach the suit without losing a trick in the process.
After West leads the heart king against four spades, you have a heart and a club to lose. If you can avoid a trump loser, then you can afford to concede a diamond trick; if not, then you need an endplay and some good luck. So, win the lead, play a spade to the king, and a spade back to your ace, West showing out.
Now play a second heart. West wins the queen and exits with a heart, East following. You win in hand (discarding a club from dummy) to play the club king. West wins the ace and exits with the club jack, which you win with dummy’s queen.
Because you have three certain losers, you need to avoid losing a diamond. The only way you might achieve that is if East began with king-fourth and West with the doubleton jack, and one of them was forced to open up the suit.
You need to play East for his actual hand, one that is not so unlikely given the bidding. After all, West rates to have a shapely hand to have come in over a strong no-trump at this vulnerability. So now you must give East his trump trick by playing queen and another spade. East wins his king and tries a low diamond, which goes to West’s jack and dummy’s queen. But now you can finesse against East’s king and make your contract.
There are three plausible directions in which to take this hand. The simplest, which I prefer, is to advance with one no-trump, which describes the basic nature and values of the hand. A one-spade bid would typically show five or more; a raise in diamonds is safe, but less constructive; and partner may not expect quite as many values. Equally, a cue-bid raise should be a better hand for offense than this.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ K Q 5 3 ♥ J 9 ♦ Q 9 8 ♣ Q 9 7 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 1♣ | 1♦ | Pass |
| ? |
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When W wins the CA, how about him leading a 4th round of H? Wiggle and squirm as he might, I’m pretty sure that that puts paid to S’s contract, since now he must broach the frozen suit. Hello, Alaska!
David Warheit –
Maybe declarer should start trump by playing both high cards in dummy. Having the A9 when West leads the fourth heart seems to work.
This may also cater to some other diamond layouts when West holds a singleton JS or 10S.
Hi David and Bobby,if playing the fourth heart works for the defence,then declarer should perhaps cash KingQueen of spades first and then play hearts,West wins and exit with third heart,declarer then plays king of clubs,and West wins,if he now plays a fourth heart,declarer can ruff in dummy or if East ruffs declarer can overuff with Ace of spades,and cash QC,then exit with a spade to East.If East discards a club on the fourth heart declarer can discard a club from hand and then play the QC club and spade exit (Ace of spades n spade)again endplays East for the diamond play..regards~Patrick.
Hi Jim2,you just got in before me!
Hi Bobby,BWTA,is one spade here forcing in your system or just forc for one round?Our one NT here is 8-12..
Hi David, Jim2 and Patrick,
You three seem to have settled the defensive ploy of West getting out with a 4th heart instead of a club, but only if declarer instead had led the second honor in trumps from dummy at an earlier trick.
David spotted the flawed declarer spade order, Jim2 and then Patrick, almost simultaneously, contributed the remedy to what then could happen in order to arrive at the winning ending in the event of a specific suit distribution at the death. All of this only proves 2 things:
1. Bridge is a partnership game, even if it sometimes requires several partners to correct an errant description.
2. Often thorough analysis demands closer attention to detail, sometimes causing key hands to produce significantly different results.
To Patrick, I do not like to play 1 spade forcing in response to an overcall, therefore demanding 5+ spades in order to bid it. 1NT being 8-11+ or 12 feels about right.
However holding: s. AKQx, h. xx, d. xx, c. xxxxx I might fudge and choose 1 spade, if for no other reason but to get a spade lead, should LHO become declarer.
Hope springs eternal, and I would bid one spade with the south hand in BWTA. Because my partners loves me, they will hold four spades and we find a nice partial. If north bids two diamonds, or one NT, that would be fine. Since we don’t know who has the balance of power yet, and I agree that south’s bid is not forcing, does not seem like we can get into much trouble. Looks like there are about twenty points for north south, and maybe more.
Fun game, this bridge.
Hi Jane A,
Everyone loves you, but does that mean that your partner always needs to have 4 card support for you when you volunteer your own 4 card suit? Either 1 spade or 1NT would get my vote as the bid du jour, with 1NT featuring a balanced hand and about 8-10 hcps.
1 Spade offers a wider choice of contracts, assuming there will be more bidding, but may be misleading (probably should have 5+ spades) later when partner (obviously he has not previously met you) does raise you competitively with only honor one, but even so, your dummy play will be up to the task.