The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019
by Bobby Wolff on
July 17th, 2019
Let him go let him tarry let him sink or let him swim
He doesn’t care for me and I don’t care for him.
He can go and find another that I hope he will enjoy
For I am going to marry a far nicer boy.
Traditional Irish song
| E | North |
|---|---|
| Both | ♠ J 10 8 ♥ J ♦ K 7 4 3 2 ♣ Q 7 6 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 3 2 ♥ K Q 9 5 4 ♦ 10 9 8 6 ♣ A 2 |
♠ 6 ♥ 7 6 3 ♦ A Q J ♣ K J 10 9 8 5 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A K Q 9 7 5 4 ♥ A 10 8 2 ♦ 5 ♣ 4 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♣ | |||
| Dbl. | 1 ♥ | 2 ♦ | 2 NT * |
| 3 ♠ | Pass | 4 ♠ | All pass |
*Puppet to three clubs
♠3
Don’t even think about acting. With only four-card trump support (which you have already almost guaranteed), a dead minimum in high cards and a great potential lead against two spades, you should pass and wait for your partner to bid any more if he has a suitable hand.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ J 10 8 ♥ J ♦ K 7 4 3 2 ♣ Q 7 6 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♥ | 1 ♠ | ||
| Dbl. | Pass | 2 ♣ | 2 ♠ |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
The Tarrytown regional tournament this February threw up an interesting defensive problem here. There were several points of interest in the bidding, the first of which was East’s two-no-trump call, sometimes referred to as “Good-Bad Two No-Trump.” In this system, East has two ways to rebid clubs. A direct call of three clubs would promise extras (akin to a jump to three clubs over a one-heart response). This sequence was purely competitive in clubs — not an underbid!
When South reached four spades, West did well to lead a trump rather than making the knee-jerk play of leading the club ace. Since his side had plenty of high cards, the opponents’ auction was surely based on side-suit shortages somewhere, and West saw there was very likely to be a need to ruff either a club or a heart in dummy.
This lead should have been the killer. However, when declarer won in hand and led a diamond to the 10, king and ace, East shifted to a heart. Declarer set about his cross-ruff and emerged with 10 tricks.
East made a pardonable mistake, but he took his eye off the ball at trick three. He knew for certain that West didn’t have a singleton club — he surely would have led it. And if West didn’t have an ace, the defense had no chance. By playing a club, East would allow his partner to play a second trump if he had either the club ace or the heart ace. Shifting to a heart put all his eggs in a (broken) basket.