That boy is not ugly at all. Ruff the third H low. East overruffs and shifts to a D. Win the A, cash one high S, ruff your 4th H with the K, draw trump, and run clubs, discarding DQ. This is better than the suggested line which would fail if W had a smaller S than the 9.

Hi Bobby, David,

With that North hand, I’d have trusted partner and bid 3NT relying on the extra values and partner’s “known” heart stop (he could have bid 3H probing) to avoid any nasty surprises in trumps, so what do I know? Nicely spotted by David, though. As the old joke goes, Be Alert – your country needs lerts.

regards,

Iain

Hi David,

So simple, it is embarrassing, but so counter intuitive.

However, only our friend Jim2 would, after seeing what only you and he saw, pay a dear price while playing this hand correctly in an IMP match.

He made only 10 tricks in spades while his counterpoint ruffed with the king in dummy, found spades 3-2 and the king of diamonds onside, lost an IMP on that board, tied the match and lost in overtime.

When asked later why?, could only reply, “finally after all these years, on this one hand I get normal breaks and lose the match because of it”. “And to make everything worse, that stupid bridge columnist, after looking at the location of all 52 cards, couldn’t play it right, even after he carefully changed the distribution, attempting to match his theme.

“Poker, anyone”? “If not, I am going out in my garden and eat worms”.

Hi Iain,

And to make matters worse and no doubt, West would have led his 4th highest heart.

If one has the patience to merely wait for the right time, he can gloat without being charged with same. Also, South would then, of course, explained to his partner that not to worry, 4 spades would also go set.

If those two events wouldn’t have been bad enough for poor South, his partner would probably have echoed, “Yes, no doubt you would”!

Hi David
Good One. Many would miss this on first glance- Counter intuitive- as our host mentioned
Regard

What happened to the s I typed in Regards?

Hi AVRR,

No never mind. You either discarded it or perhaps made an “S” out of yourself, not unlike what I did on today’s column hand.

Hi again AVRR,

Not to mention me miss using the word “counterpoint” instead of “counterpart”.

Together we have proven that ugly things come in “twos”.

David Warheit –

Outstanding!

Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Can I mention that sometimes even Good and beautiful things come in ” twos”. What matters ultimately is the attitude and sense of humour in which perhaps it is difficult to better you
Regards
( and I think I typed it correctly this time)

Hi dear AVRR,

Speaking of good and comparing it to evil, perhaps today’s bridge quote symbolizes the two extremes which could one day materially effect our troubled world. We, as representatives of the world’s many cultures, need to bridge that gap and perhaps forward going senses of humor (“making fun of oneself”) is likely the right place to start.

The motto of the World Bridge Federation is “Bridge for Peace” where all nations compete, even ones which are basically at war or close.

Surprisingly at those events China and Taiwan, Russia, their satellites, Turkey and the rest of Europe, Israel and the entire Middle East totally socialize and have great admiration and respect for each other. It is only their governments which show separation and disdain..

Perhaps more sites like ours should seek out commonality, which in turn could mightily promote friendship. Most of us may not be around to see it happen, but one day it might bridge the gap to a much happier and productive world.

Thanks for your always kind words and everyone’s great effort to both contribute and get it right.

Sorry to be the one dissenting vote. I find the column line to be much more elegant than the line described by David W. David’s line is like inviting the opponent to commit a defensive error. If I were East, I wouldn’t overruff. Suppose East started with 4 diamonds and three clubs, I would have him discard a club instead of overuffing. Now, declarer with visions of an overtrick will come to hand with the spade ace and ruff the fourth heart with the dummy’s king. East discards a second club. Declarer comes to hand with a diamond to the ace and attempts to draw trump. Next, South plays the club king and a club to the ace and East ruffs and returns a diamond for the setting trick.

Michael Beyrouti –

Per Our Host, the hand — unless otherwise stated in the column — is always presumed to be rubber bridge or teams.

If East does not over-ruff, there are 10 tricks.

Hi Michael
Unless this is a pairs event , why should South go after overtrick ? And with the holding of East , it would be difficult to find a player who would refuse to overruff. He may not get any trick if he does not overruff for all he knows.
And definitely David deserves credit for finding the obscure line. Hope you ( and our host) agree
Regards

Belated reflection . Where is the overtrick if East does not overruff?The natural inference is West is dealt with all missing trumps. So South comes to hand with club K ( he cannot afford trump to come to hand) and ruffs fourth heart. Now East must ruff else South prevails easily but that lets cat out of the bag and south has ten tricks
Regards

Hi Michael et al,

Yes, David’s line is safer (mainly because of the 9 of spades being part of 109xx with East) and thus more in keeping with playing the “real” game of bridge rather than funky duplicate with its death grip on overtricks.

However I would have expected Jim2 to expect East to have: s. singleton 6, 7, 9 or 10), h. xx, d. Kxxx, c. 10xxxxx. Of course Jim could still make the hand by finessing the diamond queen at trick 3.

The sad part of David’s much better line is the counter intuitive nature of not ruffing with the king, meaning that it will be likely to show a 1 IMP loss on this hand since I forgot to mention that yes, Jim2 this hand was not played at matchpoints, but rather during the Reisinger, a B-A-M event.

Also, I was born and bred in Texas, a state not to be trusted and why many residents still carry concealed weapons.

Since David (along with many follow on comments) has analyzed the column hand much more articulately and succinctly than what I would have managed, I’d like to turn some attention to the BWTA hand.

Knowing that RHO has at least 4 Diamonds sitting over any honors partner has, would discourage me from bidding 2NT. I’d try 3 Clubs hoping that my honors would make a double less likely and very much hoping that LHO is weak enough and holds enough Spades that he’ll bid again, or that opener will give late support on something like two Spades to the Ace.

The biggest “advantage” of 2NT, I think, is that partner would have to play this mess.

Back to the play hand, any value in ruffing the third heart with the king of trumps, play a trump back to hand and lead the 4th heart trick, ruffing in dummy low? Does this help with an unlikely 4-1 split with West having 4 trump?

Hi Ted,

No doubt, partner’s double is unexpected, especially since we probably have more valuables than expected.

At least in the not so distant past, a 2NT bid by the responder was generally known as a scramble, meaning I need to know more about your hand (certainly possible that the doubler has 3 or even 4 diamonds with the 2 spade rebidder void in diamonds with 6 spades, but minimum values. Of course, partner’s most likely bid is 3 clubs, but, if so, at least I prefer exposing my three good clubs, more than I would, bidding them myself.

Not rocket science just fiercely competitive. Yes partner will now expect diamond length from me, and if so, he will get it. It is also possible he will pass 2NT and if he does we should have no trouble, at least IMO, of scoring up 8 tricks.

Hi Ginny,

Without much fanfare, David’s line in comment #1 is clearly superior. There are several others which figure to be successful, but with the idea of making one’s contract there is no contest.

Yes your line is one of those to be considered, but no cigar as to which one is best.

Thanks for your joining in with your views. It is always appropriate as well, to hear from you,

BTW – I probably should have mentioned that Our Host made a sly joke in his July 17th, 2018 at 6:23 pm reply. Unless things have changed since last I played, B-A-M events do not use IMPs.

I was not going to comment until I realized he might think it had slipped past.

Hi Jim2,

Yes B-A-M (Reisinger Team held at the Fall Bridge ACBL Nationals each year) is short for board a match scoring which emphasizes each individual hand as to which team outdid the other, whether my infinite hundreds of points or only by the minimum possible of 10. Therein the similarity to matchpoints becomes apparent with every trick scored a vital factor in either tying, losing, or the goal, winning, that board.

When competed among the best partnerships (formed as teams of four), it is indeed, at least IMO, the most challenging form of bridge, although lacking the amount of gain feature indigenous to IMPs and/or rubber bridge, but featuring exact bidding and high-level play and defense with every trick, contract, or overtricks and undertricks, nothing short of crucial.

Finally, to attempt to slip anything bridge past Jim2, is similar to trying to thread a wet noodle or guess what color the next chameleon will become. No doubt proving that TOCM TM has the same advantages as deaf and/or blind people, developing the ability to find alternate senses to offset handicaps.

Resulting in him being virtually non-pareil in all necessary and important phases of the highest level of both bridge judgment and, of course, analysis.

Canterbury Park Horse Racing, Poker, and Table Games.

The camera may make the brightest of scenes seem like it had been taken during an eclipse.
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also have the time for it to do so. You need a special connector typically termed as a Fire wire or best known as an IEEE 1394 high band connector.