The Aces on Bridge: Monday, October 30th, 2017
by Bobby Wolff on
November 12th, 2017
’Forward the Light Brigade!’ Was there a man dismayed?
Lord Tennyson
| S | North |
|---|---|
| E-W | ♠ J 4 2 ♥ K J 8 4 3 ♦ 6 5 ♣ A 8 4 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 9 8 7 5 3 ♥ A 10 7 6 5 ♦ 3 ♣ 10 2 |
♠ Q 10 6 ♥ Q 9 2 ♦ J 10 8 7 ♣ 9 7 5 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A K ♥ — ♦ A K Q 9 4 2 ♣ K Q J 6 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ♣ | Pass | 2 NT* | Pass |
| 3 ♦ | Pass | 3 ♥ | Pass |
| 4 ♣ | Pass | 4 ♦ | Pass |
| 4 ♠ | Pass | 5 ♣ | Pass |
| 7 ♣ | All pass |
*Ace and king, in different suits or three kings
♣10
With a choice of four evils, try the least offensive one. Neither major seems like a good idea, though a heart might turn out to be passive. Spades are especially dangerous with known length on my left. Since partner didn’t double clubs, I’ll lead a low diamond and keep my fingers crossed.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
| ♠ Q 9 3 2 ♥ J 7 2 ♦ A 7 4 ♣ Q 6 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 1 NT | ||
| Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass | 2 ♥ |
| Pass | 3 NT | All pass |
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related
Today’s deal comes from the U.S. Nationals 15 years ago. It is often the case that virtue goes unrewarded at the bridge table, as a poor bid or play goes unpunished, or worse, is rewarded by a highly favorable lie of the cards. Today was not one of those days, though, since Jon Wittes and Ross Grabel used their system to get to the right spot, then took advantage of their auction to bring in a huge swing.
There are all sorts of methods to show controls in response to a two-club opening. The one in use here allocates one call to show an ace and king in the same suit, and another for three kings or an ace and king in separate suits. (By the way, these responses are better than responding in steps to show HCP.)
Wittes found his partner with the club ace and heart king on his first turn, then managed to bid his suits to give his partner an intelligent choice as to which slam to play.
After a trump lead, Wittes drew two rounds of clubs and cashed the diamond ace-king. Eureka! He ran into the specific lie of the cards that would reward his carefulness, where the same hand had short diamonds and no more than two clubs.
When one of the defenders showed out of diamonds but had no trumps with which to ruff, that allowed Wittes to ruff his diamond loser in dummy, draw the last trump and claim 13 tricks. This was a gain of 16 IMPs against seven diamonds down one in the other room.