The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, May 4th, 2019
by Bobby Wolff on
May 18th, 2019
The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork.
James Joyce
| N | North |
|---|---|
| E-W | ♠ A K 3 ♥ Q 8 3 ♦ A K Q 8 ♣ 10 6 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 8 5 ♥ — ♦ J 9 7 6 5 ♣ K Q J 9 3 |
♠ 6 4 2 ♥ J 10 9 5 2 ♦ 10 4 3 ♣ 8 4 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ Q 10 9 7 ♥ A K 7 6 4 ♦ 2 ♣ A 7 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♥ | Pass | 2 NT | Pass |
| 3 ♣ * | Pass | 3 ♥ | Pass |
| 4 ♣ | Pass | 4 NT | Pass |
| 5 ♣ | Pass | 6 ♥ | All pass |
*Checkback Stayman
♣K
Without the overcall, you would have bid two no-trump, of course. As it is, you cannot bid two no-trump now, but if you play support doubles to show three spades, that would be ideal. Without that gadget, I would jump to three spades, since a cue-bid should be a game force and the hand is not worth that.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ A K 3 ♥ Q 8 3 ♦ A K Q 8 ♣ 10 6 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Pass | 1 ♠ | 2 ♣ |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Tim Bourke, one of my Australian bridge-playing friends, has a splendid eye for a good deal. He is also an outstanding player who has only been kept from representing Australia because of ill health. But his wife, Margi, has been a regular on the Australian team over the last few decades.
Bourke played this one recently against a computer, finding the way to overcome an extremely unpleasant break. He declared six hearts on the lead of the club king to the ace. A low heart to dummy brought forth the bad news. But he put up the heart queen and correctly decided he needed East to have started with precisely a 3=5=3=2 or 4=5=3=1 shape. He next led the heart three from dummy to the nine and king. Having forced a high heart spot out of East, he cashed dummy’s top diamonds, pitching clubs, then led the heart eight, covered by the 10 and king.
In the six-card ending, there was only one way home. He crossed to a top spade in dummy to ruff a club to hand, then took the spade queen and went back to the spade king. East had been forced to follow to every trick thus far and was down to the J-5 of hearts, while South had only the trump seven left.
However, for the final two tricks, he could lead a minor from dummy and score his heart seven either at this trick or the next. This play, when you score a trick by leading a plain card and over-ruffing your opponent, is called a coup en passant.