The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
No man can lose what he never had.
Izaak Walton
| North | North |
|---|---|
| East-West | ♠ A K ♥ J 4 3 ♦ Q 6 5 ♣ Q J 10 9 7 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 9 7 3 2 ♥ 10 7 5 ♦ 3 2 ♣ K 6 2 |
♠ 10 5 4 ♥ A Q 9 8 ♦ 10 9 8 7 4 ♣ A |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ Q 8 6 ♥ K 6 2 ♦ A K J ♣ 8 5 4 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | Pass | ||
| 3 NT | All pass |
♠3
Put yourself in East's shoes and see if you can do the math in today's deal.
When South jumps directly to three no-trumps over one club, West leads the spade jack and your first question is what is South’s likely distribution? Very probably he has 3-3-3-4 pattern with a minor and 13-15 points — possibly a 12-count with good intermediates. Declarer wins the lead in dummy, and calls for the club queen. Your ace holds the trick.
Now is the time for some more counting. Dummy has 13 points; you expect declarer to have about the same, and you have nine. Partner can have only one significant high card, thus the only suit that could produce three winners for your side is hearts. If you lead a low heart that will do the job at once if partner has the king, but if what declarer has that card and partner has the heart 10 plus an entry in the form of the club king? Now leading the heart ace won’t do the job, nor will the eight or nine, as declarer will run that to the jack.
The only card to help your cause is the queen. If South covers with the king, partner is well-placed to play his heart 10 through dummy’s jack when in with the club king. And if South ducks, a low heart next will keep defensive communications open and lead to five tricks for the defense.
Just as in today's deal you were all set to jump to three no-trumps, but the opposition intervention allows you to cuebid two hearts, and maybe reach the no-trump game from partner's hand. That would be a good idea any time partner had a positional heart stopper (such as queen doubleton or queen-third).
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ Q 8 6 ♥ K 6 2 ♦ A K J ♣ 8 5 4 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 1♣ | 1♥ | |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Hi Bobby,In a funny sort of way if West has the king of hearts the contract is unlikely to fail as declarer likely to have 10xxx hearts..thus for the QH(‘surrounding play’)to work East has to hope for the KC in West’s hand.Hope and If are big words in Bridge..regards~Patrick.
Declarer might bid 1H with a four-card suit. I make East to have 10 HCP, not nine.
Hi Patrick & Memphis MOJO,
Yes, theoretically South has denied a 4 card major, a condition which should be respected.
Two things to look for:
1. Possible, or better said, likely card combinations available.
2. If so, proper execution.
We cannot force the cards to be where we want them, but high-level bridge is only about giving the partnership the chance to profit from whatever is the answer.