The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, December 6th, 2014
One man is as good as another until he has written a book.
Benjamin Jowett
| South | North |
|---|---|
| Both | ♠ A 4 3 ♥ Q 10 6 3 ♦ 4 2 ♣ A J 6 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 2 ♥ K J 9 7 2 ♦ K Q 10 7 6 ♣ 9 |
♠ Q 8 ♥ 4 ♦ A J 9 5 ♣ 10 8 7 5 4 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ K 10 9 7 6 5 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ 8 3 ♣ K Q |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♠ | 2♠ | 3♥* | Pass |
| 4♠ | All pass |
*Limit or better in spades
♦K
Last year Tim Bourke of Australia teamed up with Jason Corfield to construct a fascinating book, "The Art of Declarer Play". This consists of tough problems, together with a primer of how to think like an expert.
Here is a deal from the book. Against four spades West leads the diamond king and continues with a low diamond to the ace, for a switch to a heart. You rise with the heart ace; your move.
If West has two clubs and one spade, you can unblock your club honors before leading a spade to the ace. Then, after discarding your heart losers on the club ace-jack, you go back to spades.
However, if West has two spades and one club West would ruff the second round of clubs then, cash the heart king, and give East a heart ruff. (In this case you should simply draw trumps, since you only need to take three club tricks.)
Which line should you play? Neither – the best if surprising line of play is to immediately run the spade nine or 10 from hand! If West follows small, you duck the trick into the safe hand. Now you can win the return, cash the spade king and then play the club king-queen. This play also succeeds when West is void in trumps.
If West covers the spade 10 with an honor, you take dummy’s ace and finesse East for the remaining trump honor. You lose to West’s holding of Q-J doubleton of spades, but make the rest of the time.
With these values, you have enough to invite game or defend a doubled partscore, but you do not have enough to drive to game. I would double, meaning it as cards, with the emphasis on takeout, planning to rebid two no-trump over a red-suit to suggest a single spade stopper. But if partner bid clubs, I will simply raise that suit.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ A 4 3 ♥ Q 10 6 3 ♦ 4 2 ♣ A J 6 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 1♦ | Pass | |
| 1♥ | 1♠ | Pass | Pass |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Nothing in your analysis seemed to make sense to me—until I realized that you must have meant to say that W overcalled 2H, not 2S. Now everything makes sense.
Hi David,
Isn’t it a Michaels cue bid from west? Fascinating thought processes, though, with west assumed to have 3 black cards but not switching to his singleton club )- he could have played a second high diamond before doing so.
Iain
Clearly Michaels, meaning a heart suit and unspecified minor — that’s why declarer “knew” West had 5 hearts and 5 diamonds., leaving three black cards to be IDed in the West hand.
What happens if west has three trumps and hence 3-5-5-0? I suspect declarer is doomed regardless in practice even though singleton honour with east is manageable double dummy
Iain
That brings up the question as to why a low heart at trick two asked for a heart return. I would have suspected the 10D, instead.
Additionally, what does declarer do when West covers the first spade and East shows out on the second? As you said, there may be no winning line then.
Hi David, Iain & Jim2,
Yes, perhaps the 2 spade cue bid should have been asterisked, a Michaels cue bid (named after its inventor, Mike Michaels, many years ago, a fine bridge player and creator from around Washington DC), meaning a moderately strong but distributional hand with length in both the other major (here, hearts) and only one of the minors.
All of your collective comments are worth considering, with only the one most likely to land the contract tricks, sans overtrick, the selected choice.
Yes, I am probably not considering the popular game of matchpoint duplicate bridge with the respect many think it deserves. However, the real form of the game I love (IMPs & rubber bridge), will suffer if I, or anyone else, tries to guess exactly what Dame Fortune provides.
I have a tough enough time just making my contracts, let alone, in addition, being a fortune teller.
Yes, Jim2, a higher diamond than West played at trick 2 is definitely recommended in order to deny a club void. Thanks for mentioning!
Hi Bobby,
I think it was Jeff Rubens who wrote that a wide range of fairly good to top class players could win a pairs event, but IMPs was a far better test of genuine bridge skill – it is the real thing. When was the last time that a completely unfancied team won a big KO teams event, for example?
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
Yes, I do believe that IMPs is a better test of genuine bridge skill than is a pair event. For that matter IMO, so is rubber bridge, since amount of gain rather than frequency is also accented, usually requiring less overall luck and fewer coin flips, to triumph.
To me, genuine pertains to what distances our game from all other mind games, by outwitting one’s worthy opponents and then avoiding their traps (think in golf of nearby water and sand) and close to perfect technique (about tennis with an accurate, consistent and powerful serve complimented with great ground strokes).
In answer to your to the point question about so-called lesser teams (unfancied) winning high-level team events, no, it doesn’t happen nearly as often as do winning worthwhile pair games, but the “X” factor nowadays is that with bridge in the schools, or whatever else is determining their immense progress, younger players, especially from Europe, after gleaning some necessary at the table experience, become veritable lions in the jungle, even though they haven’t grown their recognizable mane.