Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, June 25th, 2021


2 Comments

A V Ramana RaoJuly 9th, 2021 at 3:36 pm

Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Instead of spade Q, had West led club K initially, the contract would not have any chance. But perhaps only likes of Zia Mahmood or Garozzo would lead it. Anyway, after a normal low heart lead , the play for declarer presents interesting doubledummy possibilities
Regards

bobbywolffJuly 9th, 2021 at 5:56 pm

Hi AVRR,

In reverse order to your presentation, yes and, of course,
with the normal heart lead many things can happen and probably will.

However, perhaps Zia would like his opponents to consider him unconventional and daring, but in true life he, like other great players, would only pick a few times, not regularly to stray from ordinary practices.

Having said that and in an important KO National Championship he did lead an A from Ax against me after our mundane 1NT P 3NT all pass sequence. The result was great for him, down one, and only because I did not play him for it.

However with Benito Garozzo, he was not necessarily aggressive nor conservative, only much more accurate and thus successful, than he had the right to be, with winning leads, although he appeared to be extraordinarily careful not to be thought to be “picking his spots”.

IOW, not the king of clubs in your example, especially against well known players, because of what such a choice might imply to his reputation, should it be successful (which it probably would) if, and when he did it, very much depending on who his then partner was.