The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, December 18th, 2014
Cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.
G. K. Chesterton
| South | North |
|---|---|
| East-West | ♠ 4 3 2 ♥ Q 8 6 3 ♦ 10 7 5 2 ♣ K 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 8 ♥ J 10 9 5 ♦ Q 9 3 ♣ J 9 7 6 5 |
♠ Q J 10 ♥ 7 4 2 ♦ 8 4 ♣ Q 10 8 4 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A K 9 7 6 5 ♥ A K ♦ A K J 6 ♣ A |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2♣ | Pass | 2♦ | Pass |
| 2♠ | Pass | 3 NT | Pass |
| 4 NT | Pass | 5♣ | Pass |
| 5♦ | Pass | 5♥ | Pass |
| 6♠ | All pass |
♥J
On today's deal from the Dyspeptics Club the results that followed South's long trance provided entertainment for the spectators, but heartache for at least one player at the table.
Against six spades, West led the heart jack, won by South’s ace, and the spade ace and king revealed that East had an inevitable trump trick.
After cashing the heart king and club ace, two lines presented themselves as reasonable alternatives. The first was to cash the diamond ace, then exit with a trump. This line would win if West had a singleton diamond queen, or East had a void or any singleton diamond, together with any time that East had the diamond queen.
The second line was to cash both top diamonds before exiting with a trump. This would work if West had a diamond void, or a singleton or doubleton diamond queen. It would also win if East had two or fewer diamonds. The second line is better than for the first, because East’s spade length makes it more likely he has short than long diamonds, and it South duly followed that line. When East took his spade queen he had no diamond to play, and so had to give declarer an entry to dummy for the discards he needed.
When North congratulated his partner with a mixture of encouragement and surprise, South explained his rationale as being based on the adage ‘Eight ever, nine never’, which required you to play for the drop when missing five cards. No one has yet found out if he was being serious.
When the opponents overcall over a two club opening, you can stretch to make a positive response with fewer values – a six- or seven-count with a decent five-carder would suffice. When you are weak and balanced I suggest you double with 0-4 high-cards, and pass with 5-7. On that basis, this hand would qualify for a pass.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 4 3 2 ♥ Q 8 6 3 ♦ 10 7 5 2 ♣ K 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | 2♣ | 2♦ |
| ? |
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Hi Bobby, A Happy New Year to you and Judy and all our fellow contributors on this wonderful site.Very Best Wishes~Patrick.
Hi Patrick,
Also many good wishes to you and yours for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.
I, for one, am sure all of our fellow contributors at AOB hope to hear more from you this year, with your always educational, to the point, entertaining and most important, positive viewpoints. Bridge learning needs your input.
Hi Bobby,
Firstly Happy New Year to Judy, yourself and all contributors & readers, especially all those who tolerate my quirks and diversions without wincing too much. Secondly, the trump combination in today’s play hand can feature a trap.
Imagine entries are plentiful in a spade contract with SAK9xx in hand opposite xxxx in dummy. The obvious line is to bash down AK and they either break or not. Leading from dummy first will give the option of a safety play of inserting the 9, especially as RHO will need strong nerves to calmly play small with QJ10x. Yet what if RHO plays the Q and LHO follows with the 10? You go back to dummy, and lead another trump, getting the last small card – now what? Has RHO (especially if weak) spilt his honours, found a devilish false card from Qx (when LHO clearly has to play the 10 not the Jack) despite the possible risk of his partner having a singleton King? Much depends on the strength of the oppo but the dreaded Grosvenor Coup may be rearing its ugly head here, and TOCM will put the Jack wherever it could be to give you a losing option. I’m sure the right play is for the drop, although I did use table feel once to pick up QJx from a weak RHO in exactly this case.
If there is a lesson from these ramblings, it is that choice is not always good, despite how hard the marketing people may try to convince us otherwise. The other point, is that I picked up an old copy of an “Aces on Bridge” book where an expert South was nobbled by a novice RHO playing the Q from Qx in such a position. He was still cursing himself for having generated (and taken) a losing option when trumps were 2-2, only for the novice (playing with a much better player) to ask innocently (*) “I was right to play high-low with a doubleton, like you told me, wasn’t I?” It’s moments like that which can cause some good players to use cards as fire lighters, and either to run screaming (*) back to the chess board or to become monks.
Regards,
Iain
* – I thought about splitting one or both infinitives but David doesn’t need me trying to spoil his 2015 on the first day!
Ian: I wish to strongly and sincerely wish you, Bobby and all other readers and contributors a very happy new year!
Hi Iain,
After pretending to split from touching honors you must have just been too tired to split infinitives.
The holiday season, especially with eggnog and such, sometimes encourages that, so we will both forgive and forget and issue alerts to Grosvenor Coups (GC). The sad news is that when the GC’s work, the practical logic of our wonderfully challenging game ceases.
However, after executing a successful GC, it will lose its charm unless at least some sarcastic comment, such as yours, accompanies it.
Thanks for your always unique approach.
Hi David,
All of us appreciate your continued contributions to our group in general and to bridge exactness in particular.
Thanks for the New Year wishes, which are all sincerely returned to you in no trump.
Hi again Iain,
A New Year’s confession is in order in which I am too much a Smoky the Bear fan to set fire to cards and chess is much too difficult a game for me, leaving only your remaining option of becoming a monk, in which I can use the holidays to celibate it.
Bobby: I promise not to tell Judy about your holiday plans.