The Aces on Bridge: Monday, April 4th, 2016
Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by Singularity.
John Keats
| N | North |
|---|---|
| N-S | ♠ A 2 ♥ A Q 10 ♦ K Q 6 5 2 ♣ A 8 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ K Q J 8 6 5 3 ♥ 8 ♦ 10 9 7 4 ♣ J |
♠ 9 7 ♥ J 9 4 2 ♦ 8 3 ♣ Q 10 6 4 3 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ 10 4 ♥ K 7 6 5 3 ♦ A J ♣ K 9 7 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 NT | Pass | ||
| 3 ♦ | 4 ♠ | Pass | Pass |
| 5 NT* | Pass | 6 ♦ | Pass |
| 6 ♥ | All pass |
*Pick a slam
♠K
Bridge players learn early that in order to run their long suits they should unblock their suits by cashing the high cards in the short hand first. However, every rule has its exception, and each hand should be treated on its own merits; consider today’s deal, for example.
North-South might appear to belong in seven hearts, but the opponents’ violent preemption tipped South off to potentially bad breaks on the horizon. He offered a choice of slams at the six-level, and North sensibly settled for hearts.
When West led the spade king, declarer rose with dummy’s ace then cashed the ace and queen of trump. If hearts had broken 3-2, there would have been no problem in coming to 13 tricks, so long as diamonds broke no worse than 4-2. But now even the small slam was in trouble, because entries to dummy were so limited. After cashing the diamond ace and jack, South used his last entry, the club ace, to play the diamond king. When East ruffed in with the nine, the slam was dead, for declarer could no longer reach dummy and he had an inevitable club loser.
The route home is instead to cash the heart ace and king at tricks two and three, leaving the queen in dummy as a late entry. Then comes the diamond ace and jack. Now a heart to the queen is followed by the diamond king for a spade discard. This way the club ace still remains in place, as the entry to the rest of the diamonds for club discards.
It doesn’t feel right to lead hearts – declarer might be short of entries to take a finesse in that suit. A diamond seems logical, and I’d choose the nine, since having raised the suit, partner will know I’m won’t be short there. When you have voluntarily supported your partner, as opposed to giving forced preference, you can consider leading the highest card you can afford from three or four small cards.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
| ♠ Q 7 4 2 ♥ J 10 2 ♦ 9 6 5 4 ♣ K 9 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Dbl. | ||
| 1 ♠ | Pass | 1 NT | 2 ♣ |
| 2 ♦ | 3 ♣ | All pass |
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The play at 6D and especially 6N are also interesting.
You see, it happened at last Spring’s Mud Cup. In Lower Slobbovia, it is considered immoral to open 2N with fewer than 20 HCP so the bidding began 1D – Pass – 1H – 3S.
We needed a swing and I feared a void or some other bad break. So, once I learned that we had all the aces, I simply bid 6N and hoped for the best. That is, that bad breaks would be enough to prevent a grand from making and possibly a ruff would mean even a small slam in the wrong suit might fail.
Once the opening lead was the KS, I realized the simplest way to ensure 12 tricks was to duck the opening lead!
After that, the only thing left to the play was to time it so that I discovered which two suits East would have to guard in the end before I had to discard a potential threat.
Hi Jim2,
No doubt your Spring Mud Cup hand in Lower Slobbovia would cause John Keats to know that your 6NT bid and follow-up play (ducking the first trick), embraced bridge poetry for cause and effect.
Furthermore, you didn’t have to eschew normal lines of playing suits (short hand honors first) in order to execute the squeeze and score up that well earned contract (6NT) for a bell ringer.
Still going, so to speak, when one combines Love, Keats, bridge and talent all with only 52 cards it cannot be Capped. And speaking of him, was Lena kibitzing?
There was a twist in the play, just a different one, and one I cannot recall having seen before.
That is, I had to be careful to postpone any club discards from either hand until I discovered in which hand I needed the club threat.
As for Lena kibitzing, no one dared to look!
🙂
Hi Jim2,
Especially, no doubt, if they had recently ate.