The Aces on Bridge: Monday, October 26th, 2015
If every conceivable precaution is taken at first, one is often too discouraged to proceed at all.
Archer J.P. Martin
| N | North |
|---|---|
| Both | ♠ A Q 9 8 2 ♥ A 8 ♦ A 8 5 4 ♣ 8 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 10 7 6 5 3 ♥ K 3 2 ♦ 9 6 3 2 ♣ 10 |
♠ J ♥ Q J 10 9 ♦ K J 10 7 ♣ K J 4 3 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ K 4 ♥ 7 6 5 4 ♦ Q ♣ A Q 9 7 6 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♠ | Pass | ||
| 1 NT | Pass | 2 ♦ | Pass |
| 2 NT | Pass | 3 NT | All pass |
♥2
When this deal came up at a European Junior championships, Evgeni Rudakov of the Russian Junior team was apparently the only declarer who played today’s three no-trump contract correctly when confronted with the problem.
Rudakov declared three notrump as South on the lead of the two of hearts. He correctly took the ace immediately for fear of a diamond switch. Now how should you tackle the club suit?
One possible approach is to run the club eight. This works if West has a small singleton club, but loses to both a singleton jack or 10. Rudakov tried a different approach when he led the club eight from dummy, and when East followed small unconcernedly, he put up the queen.
Several other declarers did something similar, but on seeing the fall of the 10, they simply cashed the club ace next and could not recover. However, there is a way to ensure five club winners, and that is the number required to guarantee the contract.
Rudakov played the spade four to dummy’s queen at trick three, then led the remaining club from dummy. When East correctly played low, declarer overtook with the nine. Now two more rounds of the suit gave him nine tricks – five clubs, two spades and two red aces. Had the club nine lost to the 10, it would have meant that the suit had broken evenly, of course, and he would still have had nine tricks.
Note that if declarer takes the king and ace of spades before playing on clubs, he cuts himself off from the long clubs.
Auctions of this sort scream for a passive lead, and a diamond from jack-fourth does not fall into that category. When in doubt I try to lead from a sequence, but I have none. The next alternative is the most neutral lead available in a major, and 10-third of spades meets that criterion. Some would lead the seven as opposed to the two; much depends on partnership style.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 10 7 2 ♥ Q 7 3 ♦ J 9 6 3 ♣ Q 6 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 NT | |||
| Pass | 3 NT | All pass |
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Bridge-related
On the column hand I would have doubled the one spade opener with the east hand. It might not change the bidding much. Would a diamond lead change things? Seems like this makes than hand more difficult. If declarer ducks, east takes the trick and leads a heart. Maybe declarer can recover but how?
Hi Jane,
No doubt, I agree with you that East should normally double North’s 1 spade opening bid.
By doing so, it is indeed possible that West may select a diamond lead, rather than a desperate heart, although, in this case the only picture card, the king, may still have influenced her to lead hearts instead. Of course, even with a diamond lead the ace may have been played (knowing by the TO double that the King will be in East’s hand).
And to further complete the proper analysis, South may then be assured that the spades, because of that TO double, will not be in a breaking mode, enabling him to select the winning line of play (low spade to the queen).
Declarer cannot recover once he ducks the diamond and East switches to a heart (as long as West jettisons the king of hearts on the first or second lead).
Thanks for your continued contributions to our column party.
I just know that I would not have wanted to be East trying to find discards if it went:
– AH
– QC
– KS
– 9S
– AS …
Hi Bobby,
Given that a club to the Q seems a fairly obvious play, does the failure of other declarer’s who tried it suggest it is all too easy to get some very bad habits from pairs?
regards,
Iain
Hi Jim2,
Assuming the play goes exactly that way, arriving on our discard to trick 5, after the cash by dummy of the ace of spades, let us take stock.
Declarer is now known to possess the king of spades and let’s assume the ace queen of clubs, since partner is unlikely to be ducking the ace while holding the A10. Therefore, declarer may hold the queen of diamonds, but probably not the king of hearts, since with at least 5 clubs would (should) declarer not upgrade his hand to an initial response to a game forcing 2 clubs.
Those thoughts then suggest that declarer in order to continue with 2NT should have at least 4 small hearts to compensate for no stop. Therefore it seems that diamonds (small ones should be discarded for a mild smoke screen) can be tossed since South would then be long in clubs (witness the 10 from partner), but then short in diamonds (no more than 2).
Hi Iain,
If I had to say, I’d probably suggest that the players who find a way to invent special card combinations, are at least, slightly uninformed
as to exactly make the right percentage play.
If there is a reason to be given, it is likely that each situation is dependent on the special situations which exist, AND somewhat modified
by both the bidding (or lack of) as well as the play up to then.
Overall, it is a course in mathematical consistency with other than numeracy factors ever present. However, with experience and always against very good players, the learning for players equipped to accept it, is not very difficult.
Finally playing excellent bridge is very much like graceful dancers dancing, talented singers singing, and speedy runners running, just doing what comes naturally without too much effort expended. Basically, inclination trumps work ethic.
And then the next discard?
Hi Jim2,
Next comes the 4 of clubs, since declarer has cut himself off from his club length. Only 8 tricks now with fluidity defensively to take one club, three hearts and one spade.
I can see that looking at all hands. At the table, well, remember that acronym of mine? 🙁