Dear Mr Wolff
I was reflecting on the deal & wondered If this is a pairs event –just safeguarding the contract may not be adequate
How about the following line
Since South is blessed with Two entries in Hearts, after ruffing the spade lead, lead H 2 to 9 in hand and play a diamond finessing 10 . This is tantamount to ducking first round of trumps just in case east can win but also caters to west having four diamonds with J . Now if 10 wins, play K of Diamonds . If East follows life is simple otherwise come to hand with H Q ( quite safe)and ruff a spade and come back to hand with a club to remove trumps and claim . You make a total of Thirteen tricks . 2 spade ruffs, Four Diamonds , five hearts and two clubs
Regards
AVRR

Hi AVRR,

Yes, your line is an excellent one and perhaps the best overall, however there probably is a little more to analyze.

1. For matchpoint purposes, playing in diamonds itself rather than hearts will, no doubt, cost the declaring side at least a few percentage points since hearts, in this case the higher scoring slam is also probably the better contract since clubs can be ruffed in the short trump hand in a more fluid way than spades being ruffed in dummy with diamonds trump.

2. Sometimes, even relatively excellent partnerships have difficulty once the opponents enter the auction and inevitably take away bidding room (as was done here) making the offensive bidding have to rely on getting too late heart support to verify the crucial queen of hearts, an incredibly important feature, but unknown to be until the two NS hands become visible to whomever the declarer turns out to be.

However, none of the above negates your excellent choice of play. Perhaps it only emphasizes what a difficult game matchpoint duplicate often becomes and while still a wonderful and competitive contest I have often thought and continue to be convinced that both rubber bridge and of course IMPs, are my games of choice, if only to stay as far away as possible from having mere overtricks playing such an important role in determining winners.

All readers will certainly appreciate and therefore thank your effort on how best to play the contract arrived at in today’s column.

Dear Mr Wolff
Perhaps in my excitement to comment on the deal , I missed the fine point. Yes- 6 H is a much superior slam if playing in a pairs event & Honestly Sir, I did not expect such a prompt reply
&
As I mentioned elsewhere, I stumbled upon this precious website very recently. I bring to your kind attention that I left comments on the deals dt Dec 10 2010 & Feb 1 2011. Grateful if you can reflect
Regards
AVRR

With the bidding that occurred, I believe north is promising five good hearts. When south shows heart support, why even bid six diamonds? Keep the diamond fit a secret, good things might happen, like east might even lead his singleton which then easily picks up the suit.

Easy game, right?

I am not Our Host, but North offered a choice of slams, letting South correct to hearts if the diamonds were more paste than stones. I suspect North may have considered the spade void an extra asset if ruffs could be taken in the 4 – 4 fit rather than in the long trump holding in a 5 – 3 fit. It might have even been a grand slam try. As it is, even the grand is on in hearts since club ruffs in the short hand are available.

Hi Jim2,

Bobby does not mind if we take over the site, but only for a second. You know that with your serious illness, the diamonds would go 5-0!

The heart grand is on, as you mentioned. Luck be a lady!

Hi AVRR,

Thanks for your very kind response.

I, if possible, will try and reflect on your comments from past hands, but please allow me some time to catch up.

Thanks and do not be a stranger to our site.

Hi Jane A.

Yes, sometimes surprising the opponents into making a beneficial lead for your side makes the whole difference. Other times it may keep your side from reaching a superior contract.

On this hand, with South’s belated heart raise he still could have only 3 small and at least 5 good diamonds, but having already bid them, now only, at his next turn, wanted to show his medium support for partner’s suit.

Yes, bridge can sometimes be an easy game, but only when both partner’s guess to do the winning thing. Living here in Las Vegas as both of us do, does give ample opportunity to, as they suggest, enjoy gaming. And yes I do enjoy it, but only when I win, which amazingly is probably less than 50% of the time.

Both events do happen, and like from the very old movie, Three Coins in the Fountain, which one will the fountain bless?

And yes, bidding and making 7 hearts will close the book on those opponents, so who can disagree with what you so clearly say.

Only please restrict all those times you do dastardly deeds to your opponents and give me a break by going easy when Judy and I, are your opponents.

Hi Jim2,

Bridge luck comes in all shapes and sizes except of course for you.

For some of us who have 50% or perhaps just a little more of the good stuff. we can only have profound sympathy for you who have to not have any adverse distributions which can sink your boat.

Profound and continued condolences.

Will someone tell Eugene he’s been Hung up to dry…

Hi Bobby, As I get older, it’s less about winning, and more about the journey, the satisfaction of playing optimally, when I can, and hopefully learning, when I don’t. Along the way are friendships– I often play with people I like and enjoy meeting new folks. You remind me in a way of Victor Mollo, the theater of people is part of the game and makes it more than a math problem. Playing for a few dollars–to make it interesting–is often part of it, but not too much. I enjoy winning, but also just being there (it beats work) even with some losses, I come out on top! (Most of the time, anyhow)

What am I missing?. Seems easy to ruff two spades, pull 3 rounds of trump. If they break, you have them all. If not, start the hearts. When someone ruffs in, you have a trump, and the ace of clubs entry to finish running the hearts. Takes a 1-8 spade split or a 5-0 trump split to beat it, no?

Hi JimF,

The problem in ruffing 2 spades and then drawing 3 round of trump is that someone will be left with the good trump while you still have losing spades in your hand. Consequently when they ruff in, your side will go set when they will be in a position to cash spades.

Consequently, this rain in the forecast must be provided for in advance and the loss of the trump trick, assuming it occurs, will have to be when you, the declarer, still have at least one trump left in dummy to ward off the evil spirits of going set.

It involves graceful dancing through a minefield which often occurs when good players square off against each other.

Hi Joe1,

You present a very nice appropriate picture of the upside involved at the higher levels of the game, when friendship, talent and superior ethics face each other at the bridge table.

No doubt you usually walk away a winner, simply because you love the game and welcome the challenge of competing, which in reality is half the battle before you even begin playing.

Yes, Victor Mollo had his well thought out cast of characters, both good players and not, but all with certain consistent personality traits which tend to be common among most competitors.

While poker is really not a card game, but in actuality is simply a gambling game played with cards. However bridge is a real card game where individual ducats are played in a certain order, hoping to produce the ultimate result of best declarer play verses best defense, with the bidding an integral test of attempting to predict how many tricks can be taken after the exchange of information between all the players.

Perhaps the above is a somewhat confusing way of describing a simple bridge game, but anyone who takes expert bridge for granted is both too optimistic and then doing our superlative game a great injustice.

However, like a great song, you seem to be able to capture the melody, add your own lyrics and reach a satisfactory conclusion.

However there have been genius child proteges in both art and music, but never a single one in bridge and that fact is not a mirage, simply because the experience of playing high-level bridge is absolutely required for every aspiring player and since that will never just occur early in bridge learning, no matter how talented, all of us have to earn our very difficult right of passage.

However, when one arrives at the Emerald City, if and when that happens, there will be a real wizard in control, not Frank Morgan, wrapped in drapes.

Hi Mr Wolff
Thanks
Perhaps I should have added the following to my suggested line. As you might observe , the party comes to an end if East is dealt with a singleton D J . A neophyte pulling small diamond from dummy at trick two ends up making seven where as my suggested line will limit the tricks to twelve ( But a definite twelve nevertheless). Yes Bridge and life can be unfair and perhaps cruel to the virtuous at times
Regards
AVRR

Dear Mr Wolff.
Please ignore my earlier comment. I had a blind spot and was away from computer and mentally visualizing the hand. Perhaps what I should have mentioned is when a diamond is pulled from dummy at second trick and if D J appears from East, even a neophyte will not have any problem in wrapping up twelve tricks
Regards
AVRR

Hi AVRR,

No problem since all readers will understand what you meant.

I may have trouble with archiving 12/10/10 and 2/1/11 so I would appreciate it (if it is feasible) for you to rather compose a specific question wherein my answer would satisfy your curiosity.

Computer savvy is not my best quality (at least I hope it is not).

Hi Michael,

To be dry, you Gene are Hung, but please
don’t cry.

Neither is my poetry.

Hi Mr Wolff
It is indeed a pleasure to interact with you on this blog. I am reproducing the hand of Feb 1 ,2011 along with your annotation & later my comments.
Dealer: South
Vul: N-S

North
♠ Q 6 3

♥ Q 8

♦ K 9 8 5 3

♣ K 9 4

West
♠ J 9 7 5

♥ J 10 6 3

♦ A 7 4

♣ 8 3

East
♠ 10 4 2

♥ 9 7 5 2

♦ Q 6

♣ A Q J 5

South
♠ A K 8

♥ A K 4

♦ J 10 2

♣ 10 7 6 2

There should be no difficulty in reaching three no-trump here, against which West should lead a low heart. From J-10 sequences, one should lead an honor only if the holding is supported by the nine or eight.

South wins the first heart trick and leads the diamond jack, losing the finesse to East. East should now assume that if his partner cannot obtain the lead, the game cannot be defeated whatever he does.

However, declarer’s first-round finesse in diamonds strongly suggests that he is missing the ace. If West does have an entry, clubs look like the most promising avenue of attack for the defenders.

So at the third trick East should return a low club, knowing that to put partner on lead to broach clubs initially from his side would not suffice to set the contract. It would of course be a mistake for East to attack clubs by leading the queen. This can never gain and would be fatal if (as here) South had started with four clubs to the 10.

After the return of the low club at trick three, South is helpless. He continues diamonds, and West holds off until the third round, waiting to see East’s discard. When East pitches the spade two on the diamond ace, it should be clear to West that East wants a club back, and so the defense can take two diamond and three club tricks.

————

Dear Mr. Wolff
I recently stumbled upon this website ( about a week back to be precise) which is a veritable treasure house of instructive hands
In the diagrammed deal- ( Assume this is on IMP scoring) as declarer needs only 3 tricks in Diamonds – suppose Declarer wins the first trick in dummy and detaches 8 of diamonds, what will east do? There are a few players who would cover but perhaps not & in that case if west wins with D A, declarer has easy route to 9 tricks if not 10. However if a thoughtful West ducks D 8. Now what ? I think declarer should play D K trying to pin D Q as by now he is certain that East holds D Q ( if not D A too which is a remote possibility) Now If W wins with D A and D Q does not drop, Declarer has not lost anything and he will romp home if W does not shift to Clubs- Thought I should bring this nuance to your kind attention

Regards
A.V.Ramana Rao
PS: I am from India. I do not play but am a passionate reader

Hi AVRR,

Good to hear again from you, especially with your kind words and your contagious enthusiasm.

Concerning the 2/1/11 column, with the actual layout, yes, of course, a well-timed low diamond from dummy could be best and for the reasons you suggest, but how would any human being guess correctly how that fickle Dame Fortune dealt the cards?

Suppose it was West who held both the Ace and Queen of diamonds, it would now enable the defense, simply by him winning the queen and switching to a club to claim victory (at least on this hand). Or of course if West held only the Queen of diamonds and East the Ace, as long as a club is switched to and upon East winning merely cleared the clubs in preparation of getting in again in diamonds for cashing the fifth defensive trick in clubs.

At least, on those occasions declarer forced the defense to make a non-intuitive low club back from East to earn his set.

Also on the first heart the declarer upon ducking the queen in dummy should win his king, not his ace, in order to “trick” an unwary opponent to continue hearts (instead of the lethal club shift). The above is just a small bonus to learn while you are merely learning rather than playing.

Is bridge a “great game” or what?

Thank you for going to the trouble of reproducing such a long ago AOB hand and happy bridge to you “forever”.

AVRR –

I posted a comment to your December 10, 2010 post a few days ago.

Hi Jim2,

Thanks much for taking over with almost 5 year old posts otherwise known as TOCM (telling our common message). I couldn’t survive without you.

Hi Jim 2
Please visit Dec 10 posting
Regards
AVRR