The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
Who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?
William Makepeace Thackeray
| S | North |
|---|---|
| N-S | ♠ 9 6 ♥ 8 5 3 ♦ 8 7 4 3 2 ♣ 7 5 4 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 5 4 3 2 ♥ 6 2 ♦ J 5 ♣ K Q 9 6 |
♠ K Q 8 7 ♥ 9 7 4 ♦ K 10 9 6 ♣ J 8 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A 10 ♥ A K Q J 10 ♦ A Q ♣ A 10 3 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ♣ | Pass | 2 ♦ | Pass |
| 2 ♥ | Pass | 3 ♣* | Pass |
| 3 NT | Pass | 4 ♥ | All pass |
*Second negative
♣K
In today’s deal North showed a second negative at his second turn, then had a problem at his third turn over South’s three notrump call. Declarer would have had just eight tricks in no-trump today, so North’s decision to convert to four hearts was not unreasonable, and it left South in a contract with decent play. Even with the diamond finesse onside, declarer still needed some cooperation from the defenders. However, he received some help when West quite naturally led a top club.
South realized he would need the diamond finesse, but that a 4-2 club break might cause him some big trouble. He also realized that he wanted a club continuation at trick two, so when East followed low to the first trick South dropped the 10. Although a spade shift would have been the killer, West naturally continued with a low club, and declarer captured East’s jack, drew one round of trumps, and played a third club. East showed out on this trick, so West led a fourth club. Declarer would have gone down had he ruffed in dummy, but he carefully discarded the losing spade from dummy. From this point on he could not be prevented from drawing a second trump, ruffing a spade in dummy, and taking the diamond finesse for his 10th trick.
Although the defenders could have prevailed by shifting to a spade at trick two (and might have done so had South followed with a small club at the first trick) one can hardly blame West for his club continuation. Sometimes you have to pay off to a nice play.
There are number of ways you can misdescribe your hand here. You could bid two notrump, overbidding your hand by at least a queen, or repeat your spades, pretending you had a six-card suit. But the simplest and best way to describe this hand is to give preference to hearts. This suggests a doubleton and 6-10 points; perfect!
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ A 10 8 7 4 ♥ 7 4 ♦ K 10 9 6 ♣ J 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♥ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♠ | Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Good morning all
I apologize for going back to the Lauria hand, but I do not see that the ruff-and-sluff at trick 7 makes Lauria come one trick short.
Reviewing, the hand at trick 7
…………………………………4
…………………………………K5
…………………………………Q754
…………………………………-
-……………………………………………………………..-
A7………………………………………………………..1043
AK83……………………………………………………..J2
6…………………………………………………………..AQ3
………………………………..J5
……………………………….98
……………………………….1096
………………………………..-
This comes directly from my write-up.
Declarer ruffs in hand high, discards the 4H, plays H to the A, plays AKD, ruffs third D, ruffs out the KH in north hand with the last trump in dummy and ruffs fourth D in hand, cashing the last heart, now 10 high and hearts were 3-3 anyway.
Thank you guys for your patience.
You have too many cards in declarer’s hand — count them.
More specifically, and as I stated earlier, declarer started with 6 clubs, has ruffed two spades and drawn two rounds of trump. Thus, declarer has only two clubs left at the moment of the diagrammed trick.
The effect is that declarer runs out of trump and cannot get back to hand after establishing his hearts.
Hi Peter (and Jim2),
Taking into consideration that you, Peter, are very virtuous and also very bright, industrious, entusiastic and bridge loving, your analysis has still caused a tiny bit of mischief.
The weapon you are using, as East, has one extra bullet (please check your diagram for the eighth card while others have only seven) and alas, that extra card has produced the contract trick. Great result for you (and mistakenly for me) but those rascal opponents won’t let us get away with such mischief.
However, next time will be different, like today’s column hand when those same guys were our victims and continued clubs when we false carded the ten on the first one. We then out maneuvered them by discarding our losing spade on the fourth round after we won the third and continued the fourth in order to make use of the future benefit of a successful loser on loser play. Not only could we then safely ruff our losing spade, we reached that barren dummy to take the winning diamond finesse for our contract.
Not bad, to win a trick with that sorry collection of cards our partner deeded us, but also the right to lead from that hand enabling the ability to score up the contract fulfilling trick. And all done without the use of smoke and mirrors, or was it?
Perhaps the opponent’s won’t agree with that mischievous ten of clubs we played at trick one.
Dear Jim2 and Bobby
I think that the ruff-and-sluff was avoided at all costs….
What kind of player will give opponents a ruff-and-sluff?
We have been brain-washed, haven’t we?
Hi Peter,
Yes, and simply but beautifully described by you.
And not restricted to only bridge playing, but very common in real life where undeserved power results when others allow it to happen.
In learning high level bridge one needs to always exhibit a show-me attitude, rather than just a benign accepting (rather lazy) persona.
Somewhat similar to a hungry person who instead of merely accepting free food simply asks, “Show me how to hunt and fish”.
Briefly stated, at least to me, contract bridge is clearly the greatest mind game ever invented, but to prove it, is certainly not my saying it, but instead delving into it oneself and then, and only then, beginning to understand why.
Furthermore, for our parent organization in the USA (ACBL with blessings from their BODs)) to take the position they take, concentrate on pleasing the very senior set (over 70) instead of attempting to insure perpetuating our game for decades and even centuries to come, continues to confound and bewilder my senses.
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