The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, March 7th, 2018
Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.
Paraphrased from Isocrates
| W | North |
|---|---|
| None | ♠ 9 6 3 ♥ K J 8 6 ♦ K Q ♣ A Q 9 7 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ K Q J 7 4 2 ♥ Q 4 ♦ J 4 ♣ 5 3 2 |
♠ 8 ♥ 3 2 ♦ A 9 8 7 6 3 ♣ K J 8 6 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A 10 5 ♥ A 10 9 7 5 ♦ 10 5 2 ♣ 10 4 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 ♠ | Dbl. | Pass | |
| 4 ♥ | All pass |
♠K
The 2017 Yeh Bros Cup threw up this intriguing four-heart game. At one table, Karen McCallum chose a good moment for an aggressive pre-empt when she opened three spades. North, Deng Zhuodi, also did well when he elected to double on a slightly flawed hand. This had the effect of getting his side to four hearts. After a spade lead, won in hand, declarer Yin Jiashen could see little prospect but to eliminate diamonds.
When Cenk Tuncok, as East, won his diamond ace and returned the suit, the fall of the jack let Jiashen win, then guess the trump queen and draw trumps in two rounds. Next, declarer pitched a spade on the diamond 10 and finessed clubs, with East becoming endplayed upon winning that trick. He could either lead a club into the tenace or give a ruff-sluff, letting declarer ruff in hand and pitch another spade from dummy.
In the other room, Jing Liu led a top spade. Declarer Sally Brock won and played a diamond, and Yingbao Liu found a more challenging defense when he ducked this trick but won the next, returning a diamond to let West ruff in and kill the discard. However, this simplified the trump position; declarer over-ruffed West, drew trumps in two rounds and passed the club 10 for the same endplay. When a diamond came back, Brock could pitch a spade from hand and ruff in dummy, and her hand was now high, apart from her spade loser.
No swing, and nicely done.
It never does any harm to cover the basics from time to time. When the opponents bid and raise a suit after your side has doubled, your side’s next double is take-out rather than for penalty. That applies whether you or your partner makes the second double. So you should bid three hearts now.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 9 6 3 ♥ K J 8 6 ♦ K Q ♣ A Q 9 7 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | |||
| Dbl. | 3 ♦ | Dbl. | Pass |
| ? |
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hi Bobby
was there a problem on yesterday’s page, that the comment was not loading?
Hi Bobby
my comment was:
we use the concept of captaincy in bidding;
was the concept of taking charge of the defensive line ever named captaincy in defense?
thanks
Hi Bobby,
On BWTA, how much more would you want before bidding 4H given the modern tendency to double on hands like Jxx KJxx xx AQ9x?
On the play hand, the DJ’s appearance makes playing for trumps to be 2-2 more plausible. If West had Dxx (and followed upwards), the 6-1 spade break might have pushed me towards playing for Hearts to be 3-1.
Regards,
Iain
Hi Peter,
At least, I, was not made aware of any problem in loading. However that is certainly not conclusive none was present. Hopefully you were not seriously inconvenienced by whatever happened.
The “Captaincy on defense” does occur, but only when one defender or the other, sometimes even with the opening lead, starts out with an indication of either his hand pattern or by inference (such as a trump lead) whether it resulted because of indifference to other choices or, instead, with a specific purpose.
So much for discussing the difference between normal momma, papa bridge (where often randomness exists instead of purpose) as against top level, where partner can count on partner having, at least some method to his “madness”.
From the above, the up elevator aspiring player, can learn the rhythm of his partner’s play, therefore (if that partnership is headed in the right direction) that melody becomes contagious to his (or her) partner, allowing him to piece together almost exactly (sometimes, but not always) what both declarer started with (look at it that way and it eventually, if not sooner, will allow that informed defender to know what to play and hold onto at the death). Together with the most deceptive defensive play or plays (discarding down to a singleton king comes into mind) in order to, at the very least, confuse the declarer, into, if at all possible, may wind up guessing the wrong thing to do.
However he above, will take time and much learning and concentration by both partners before fruition will become complete, but once done, available and always worth the long incubation period.
Yes the above will only occur among the most innately potentially talented and concentrated players and, believe me, for any and every one will never happen overnight!
Please consider only one card combination and in one (only) suit please imagine, West: Q9x, North: Kxxx, East AJx, South (declarer) 108x with West on lead:, Queen, dummy: king (he better), East Ace, South x. East then x, declarer 8, West 9, and back to East’s jack. Done countless times over the course of many years and by many partnerships, but all of them top class and with, of course, much accompanying satisfaction.
Finally, I have never heard of it (up to now) being called Captaincy on defense, but that is, thanks to you, a good reminder.
Hi Iain,
Methinks it is imperative for South, in today’s hand, to bid 4 hearts, therefore pointing to your toned down version of an immediate TO dbl. of one spade a bit too much below standards.
Of course, it can turn out to be a winner, if indeed North has such a minimum, but by originally doubling, teases EW to go to four spades down, rather than settle for a making
three level contract
Such, sometimes is the luck which overbidding sometimes produces, but as a shrewd bookmaker may advise, “That is not the way to bet”.
And regarding your right-on comment about how the jack of diamonds follow by West, enabled declarer to guess the trump position, how about a clever jack of diamonds false card from say Jxx, or even Jxxx (with or without the ten) in order to at least attempt to ring up his queen of hearts as an eventual trick.
Such is the plight of all declarers when playing against the best, and although exhilarating at times it is sometimes poison for the ego with the result.
A Disfunção Erétil é um problema de saúde muito comum. http://www.fpa.su/bitrix/rk.php?goto=http://igxe11111.blogspot.com/2018/02/nao-pode-deixar-de-falar-em-turll.html