The Aces on Bridge: Friday, March 11th, 2016
It’s lies. It’s all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that’s all. People see what they think is there.
Terry Pratchett
| E | North |
|---|---|
| E-W | ♠ K 8 6 5 4 ♥ K Q J 5 ♦ A J ♣ Q 7 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ A 9 ♥ 10 3 ♦ 9 6 2 ♣ A K J 10 4 2 |
♠ 10 3 ♥ 8 7 6 2 ♦ 10 7 5 4 3 ♣ 9 3 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ Q J 7 2 ♥ A 9 4 ♦ K Q 8 ♣ 8 6 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | |||
| 1 NT* | Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass |
| 2 ♠ | Pass | 4 ♠ | All pass |
*12-14
♣K
As a bridge player, there is a time and a place for optimism and pessimism. When declaring the hand, you want to be optimistic if you are in a poor contract: look for a lie of the cards that will allow you to make. Conversely when in a good contract, plan to counter what might go wrong, however unlikely.
The same logic applies to defense; put yourself in West’s shoes today to see what I mean. Having stayed silent at unfavorable vulnerability against a weak no-trump, since partner was a passed hand, you lead a top club and see a depressingly strong dummy.
The natural thing to do is to shift to a diamond, trying to set up a winner for your side, before declarer’s loser in that suit goes away. However, dummy’s values plus South’s weak no-trump, when added to your own values, suggest East does not have a solitary high-card point. He certainly cannot hold the diamond king, so this line of defense can never prevail.
Surely, the only hope to beat the game is to maneuver a trump winner. So play off the club ace and lead a third club. Declarer must use dummy’s spade king to ruff the third club. Declarer now plays a trump to his jack.
When you take this with the ace to play a fourth club, East can ruff in with the spade 10 to promote a defensive trump trick for your nine. And if partner has sacrificed his trump 10 on the first round of the suit, you can always find a new partner…
A simple call of two hearts here should be non-forcing, a jump to three hearts should be 5-5 invitational. To force to game, start with the call of two clubs. This is the New Minor forcing convention, which I recommend to everyone – one of the very few gadgets with little or no downside.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ K 8 6 5 4 ♥ K Q J 5 ♦ A J ♣ Q 7 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♠ | Pass | 1 NT | Pass |
| ? |
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4 million, below not only the adjacent home,
but most other homes in the area. Another thing to
have set up in advance is a good record keeping system.
You must remember that they are going to be dealing with large sums of money for you as
a good mortgage broker shall be handling every aspect
on your behalf apart from adding your signature to paperwork.
TO: Real Estate Kolkata
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