Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, August 4th, 2022


2 Comments

Iain ClimieAugust 18th, 2022 at 10:33 am

Hi Bobby,

I suppose East could let go of 2 hearts the C3 and then another heart trying to look like a man with None KQJ9xx 109xxx Jx but that is long odds against and I suspect declarer would still get it right and play the CK.

You mention that West has to keep 3 clubs to the 9, though. That strikes me as one of the easier defensive problems as West will follow to all 4 spades and can clearly dump the 13th if ever required.

Regards,

Iain

bobbywolffAugust 18th, 2022 at 1:32 pm

Hi Iain,

You not only don’t speak with forked tongue, but instead add hoped for clear thinking by some players who may not yet reached that point. (“sometimes lowly nines make the difference”). Yes, I fear some defenders might keep the fifth spade for either cashing the setting trick once “I” get in or simply “why would I ever throw a good trick away?”.

However, all of us should forget the above more or less unnecessary paragraph and instead spend our bridge brain unraveling what very well should happen while playing the lucky contract of 6NT instead of the very sound spade slam which will sadly fail because of the horrible trump stack.

Yes, methinks all of us would choose double instead of the “hand hog” 3NT response by South, allowing NS to more easily reach the usually better contract of 6 spades.