The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, March 30th, 2016
I dislike Allegory — the conscious and intentional allegory — yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.
J. R. R. Tolkien
| E | North |
|---|---|
| N-S | ♠ 8 ♥ 10 8 7 ♦ K Q 10 7 6 3 ♣ 9 7 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 9 7 3 ♥ K Q J 9 6 ♦ 9 4 ♣ A J 3 |
♠ 5 4 2 ♥ A 5 3 2 ♦ 8 5 ♣ Q 10 6 4 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A K Q J 10 6 ♥ 4 ♦ A J 2 ♣ K 8 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | |||
| 1 ♠ | 2 ♥ | Pass | 3 ♥ |
| 4 ♠ | All pass |
♥K
Goldilocks had the afternoon off from the local duplicate bridge club, so she was taking a quiet nap, when she heard the normal buzz of conversation that always accompanied the three bears return from their game.
When she asked if there were any deals that had led to more than the usual degree of dissension, Papa Bear shoved the hand record under Goldilocks’ nose, covering up all the cards except those of North and East.
On the auction shown, Papa Bear sat East. He encouraged on the opening lead of the heart king, but the play did not take long after this. South ruffed the second heart, drew trump, and claimed the balance. “I suppose a passive defense could have been right.” Said Goldilocks tactfully but inwardly she was unpersuaded.
Mama Bear butted in to say: “I overtook the heart king at trick one and shifted to a club. Declarer guessed well to duck and we held him to ten tricks.”
Before Goldilocks could enquire whether this had turned out to be a good score or a bad one for Mama Bear, Baby Bear, who had been bouncing up and down in his chair interrupted excitedly.
“I also overtook the heart king at trick one, but I shifted to the club queen at the second trick. Now whether declarer covered or ducked the trick, we had three club winners to cash, and the game had to go down.”
“Nicely done” said Goldilocks, realizing that if Baby Bear continued improving at this rate, he would soon be unbearable.
Players get paranoid about the fact that a one club opener may be only a three-card suit. So it might – but that doesn’t mean it is. Partner normally has four, and this is especially so in third seat where a minimum opener might prefer a decent four-card major to a bad club suit. This points to the right call here being to raise to two clubs, an action I much prefer to passing or, worse, responding one no-trump.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 5 4 2 ♥ A 5 3 2 ♦ 8 5 ♣ Q 10 6 4 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | 1 ♣ | 1 ♥ |
| ? |
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Hi Bobby,
Is the C10 even better than the CQ? After all, South might have AKQJxxx x xxx KJ while the C10 still works on the layout shown. True, the hand I quote is a specific case, but the C10 does seem to cover slightly more possibilities.
Regards,
Iain
RE: BWTA
Where is the power? You have a bad hand, West couldn’t open, and partner didn’t open 1NT. Most likely, partner is unbalanced and/or East has the best hand. In either case, you want to get in with 2C. The last thing you want to do is give West a comfortable cue bid of 2C. If that happens, you are almost guaranteed a bad board.
Iain… you’re unbearable! 🙂
Hi Michael,
Another one agreeing with my wife, daughters and the fair sex in general that I have an unhealthily picky smart-alec streak! Not you too, though, whatever happened to male solidarity against the monstrous regiment….
Iain
Hi Iain (aka UB),
Thanks for your insight and although the bidding, no doubt, will allow declarer to guess right, perfection is its own reward.
And as to whether Michael’s new name for you bears repeating, your bridge imagination is a lock to be golden.
However, we’ve all had partners who upon winning declarer’s king with his ace after your ten causes declarer to foolishly play his king, falling to partner’s ace, but then has then tried to cash his queen of hearts, since that card was the highest one left in his hand.
Only proving unbearable may be an underused word.
Hi Slar,
And if I thought Iain was very imaginative, you seem to, at the very least, match his volume. However, while holding four of the opponents suit and hearing my partner open the bidding after West had passed, would not, at least at this point, worry too much about the opponent’s bidding game.
Yes, taking an opponent’s cue bid away at the two level can afford us a gain, but that eventuality doesn’t appear likely to me, so I will (should) just try and make the most constructive bid for my partner as possible and that seems to be two clubs rather than 1NT (mostly because of the ghastly heart spots). If those spots included the ten, I would change my mind and run for daylight by preferring NT.
Hi Michael & again Iain,
Perhaps Iain should give both his wife and daughters bear hugs, which usually keeps God in his heaven and close relatives sweet, causing that monstrous regiment to not have a cross to bear.
Known as fighting fire with fire under an assumed name.
On slar’s initial Q, my money would be on pard having too much to open 1N but not enough to open either 2C or 2N, with pard hoping to rebid 2N in an auction like:
1C – 1H
2N
Hence, I think the BWTA bidding would now see North bid 3N ending the auction if s/he has any sort of heart stopper. So, the question now is what would pard bid with a balanced 19-20 count and no heart stopper? Would a heart cue bid ask South to bid 3N with a heart stopper?
Hi Jim2,
I agree to what you suspect as the most likely strength around the table.
And while partner would then cue bid 2 hearts, obviously asking for a heart stop (or possibly while holding Qx) it would then become imperative for our hand to respond 3 hearts allowing partner to have the heart lead coming around to him instead of through.
Sadly, most of these special situations are learned through experience instead of bridge teaching books, making them less well known than they should be.
And finally what to do and how to survive while trying to improve. Bridge bidding has evolved with common card sense leading the way. Obviously (or at least logically) a 3 heart bid by me, is an acceptance of NT but basically requiring partner to bid 3NT with any balanced hand (as you originally suggested) but with the hope that he held the queen or maybe even J10x.
However if he was very short in hearts and was only interested in game or slam in clubs then he would disdain NT and either cue bid another suit or, if satisfied, merely ask for aces or jump to what he thinks he can make in clubs.
Again, bridge learning sometimes comes in spurts and the above is an example of application. It starts with your assumption of the type of hand partner figures to have and if having hearts stopped (King or even perhaps only Qxx) he would bid NT himself.
Nothing perfect or even close, but everything practical.
Hi Bobby,
Many thanks for the kind words and advice – definitely worth a go. In terms of the regiment (a John Knox pamphlet) ar least its author wasn’t Calvin and he has been credited. (as have others ) with ” Hr who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long!”. Cheering thoughts!
Iain