The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, July 28th, 2015
by Bobby Wolff on
August 11th, 2015
My name is Might-have-been:
I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
| E | North |
|---|---|
| E-W | ♠ 9 4 ♥ A Q 2 ♦ K J 5 3 2 ♣ 10 5 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ A K 8 7 2 ♥ 9 ♦ A 10 9 4 ♣ K 8 7 |
♠ Q J 5 3 ♥ 10 6 5 ♦ 7 6 ♣ J 9 6 4 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ 10 6 ♥ K J 8 7 4 3 ♦ Q 8 ♣ A Q 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | |||
| 1 ♥ | 1 ♠ | 2 ♠ | 3 ♠ |
| 4 ♥ | All pass |
♠K
This is a very tricky problem especially at matchpoints, where finding the highest scoring partscore is as important as simply going plus. I can understand passing at teams since all your cards look to be lying badly. At pairs maybe two spades is reasonable. I’m not a fan of a two no-trump call here. I have no tricks for my partner.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 9 4 ♥ A Q 2 ♦ K J 5 3 2 ♣ 10 5 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | 1 ♠ | Pass | |
| 1 NT | Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass |
| ? |
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related
In today’s deal put yourself in East’s shoes. West leads the spade king; over to you.
If you were parsimonious you could give partner an “encouraging” spade five, and then blame him afterwards for not reading this as a high spade! If he misreads the position, and cashes a second top spade, the defense is over. West may guess well to exit with a trump, but declarer simply ruffs out the diamonds to establish two discards for his losing clubs and makes 10 tricks.
A helpful partner would make West’s life far easier by following with the spade queen at the first trick, promising the spade jack. The general rule about dropping an honor in these positions is that it is either shortage or a sequence solid from that card down.
That will allow partner to underlead in spades on the second round, so that you can shift to a club through declarer’s club acequeen. That lets you develop four tricks before declarer sets up the diamonds for a club discard. You had better get the defense right to this one, since four spades your way only goes one down!
Perhaps West might have bid on — his hand looks more suitable for offence than defense, and the only reason that the four spade contract goes down is your combined weak club spots. If East’s clubs were just a little better West might have made 10 tricks in spades – and four hearts might still be allowed to sneak home, if you don’t time the defense right.