The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, June 18th, 2016
This noble eightfold path… right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right contemplation.
The Pali Canon
| N | North |
|---|---|
| None | ♠ K Q 4 ♥ 9 7 3 ♦ K J 10 8 4 ♣ J 10 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ A 8 7 6 3 ♥ J 5 ♦ 7 2 ♣ K 8 7 5 |
♠ 5 2 ♥ A 10 ♦ A Q 9 3 ♣ 9 6 4 3 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ J 10 9 ♥ K Q 8 6 4 2 ♦ 6 5 ♣ A Q |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | ||
| 2 ♥ | All pass |
♦7
In this deal from a Regional knockout, careful signaling was required to defeat the final contract. Would you and your partner have been on the same page?
Against South’s two hearts West found the best lead of his doubleton diamond. East won the queen and, looking at the heart ace, knew that playing two more diamonds – hoping to give West a trump promotion – could wait. So he shifted to the spade five, and West made the key play of withholding his ace, playing an encouraging eight instead. (If West had discouraged in spades, East would have played a club when in with the heart ace, hoping to find West with the ace-queen. His plan would have been to take two clubs, two diamonds, the heart ace, and another trump trick via a promotion.)
At trick two, declarer took the spade shift in dummy and led a heart. East rose with the ace and played his second spade. West won and returned his lowest spade, the three, a suit-preference signal for clubs, the lower-ranking suit. East now knew that West did not have a promotable heart honor, so playing more diamonds would be futile. Instead East switched to a club, setting up the defense’s sixth trick before declarer established a diamond discard for his losing club.
If West had given a higher suit-preference on the third spade, East would have cashed the diamond ace and played a third round – exchange the club king and queen and the heart queen and jack in the diagram, and now a trump promotion defeats the contract.
This looks like a clearcut light opening bid in third seat. Our diamonds are strong and we can survive any response partner makes (although a jump to two no-trump would admittedly make me a little nervous). If LHO winds up as declarer, we would much prefer a diamond lead rather than a heart or a club. So open one diamond.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ K Q 4 ♥ 9 7 3 ♦ K J 10 8 4 ♣ J 10 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | ||
| ? |
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Bridge-related
After such beautiful defense… nirvana!
Hi Michael.
Indeed!
And breaking down the Pali Canon's topical quote with what could be named, bridge tenets, involved: views-timing, aspiring-design for success, speech-legal signalling, conduct-plan implementation, likelihood-survival, effort-work in progress, mindfulness-worthiness, and finally contemplation-expectation.
The above is close to a master plan for bridge, usually in the mind of a declarer, but often instead, two talented defenders plying their combined ability to achieve a set.
Yes, a beautiful defense, based on logic and, of course, guessed location of key cards. Together, it is what high-level bridge is about and hoped for nirvana is always the goal.
Thanks for your right-on comment.
Nirvana? No. EW are cold for 4C. Admittedly, the cards lie perfectly for a club contract, but if they could only make 3C, then NS could make 2H. I don’t see a reasonable way for EW to get into the bidding, but maybe our host has some thoughts on the subject.
Hi David,
If perfection, in bridge, is your goal, no doubt you have a valid point, since indeed EW can make 10 tricks in clubs. However in order to accomplish that, East, after passing, must come in with a 2NT balance (played as a minor suit TO, allowing his partner to likely buy the hand at three clubs and since clubs are 2-2 with the ace on side, and the diamond finesse works, plus both majors behaving themselves defensively so that no overruffs occur, 10 tricks are indeed available.
However, since Nirvana is defined as creating a perfect state of happiness, the defense exhibited on this hand by EW should satisfy that condition far quicker than the luck needed to make that club contract.
Bridge itself is a very difficult game to play anywhere near perfectly, especially on defense where, such as this hand, every defensive move has to be made just right in order to effect the result achieved.
For state of mind purposes and while playing the game, IMO, nothing rivals doing just that while participating at a reasonably high level against clever opposition. Getting lucky is another matter and has its place, but not for sheer achievement, only by its fortunate result.
Therefore, at least to me, and while playing bridge, I would value defeating 2 hearts as closer to Nirvana than bidding and making 10 tricks in clubs. However and to validate your point, since Nirvana appears to represent a state of mind, both of us may be right in our description, the only difference appearing because of the semantics of what the word “Nirvana” is supposed to mean.
Thanks for your interpretation. It would appear that EW needed to be interviewed in order to hear what they think.
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