The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, May 19th, 2018
In our tenure on this planet, we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt.
Carl Sagan
| S | North |
|---|---|
| N-S | ♠ Q 7 3 2 ♥ A K 7 6 ♦ A Q 4 ♣ 4 2 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ K 9 ♥ 10 4 ♦ 9 7 6 3 ♣ A 9 7 5 3 |
♠ 6 5 ♥ Q J 9 8 5 ♦ K J 8 ♣ 10 8 6 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A J 10 8 4 ♥ 3 2 ♦ 10 5 2 ♣ K Q J |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♠ | Pass | 2 NT* | Pass |
| 4 ♠ | All pass |
*Forcing spade raise
♦7
On this deal from the Cavendish pairs, it was demonstrated that the downsides of opening light are not limited to getting too high once in a while. Where I was watching, Amos Kaminski passed the South hand, and a transfer auction to four spades saw Piotr Gawrys (North) have no problems on a club lead.
By contrast, both Geir Helgemo and Fred Stewart opened the South hand, the former fueled by youthful exuberance, and the latter by a strong club system. After a game-forcing trump raise, both played four spades on a diamond lead to the jack.
It looks normal to go after clubs now as East, doesn’t it? Think again — there is no hurry to lead clubs. Partner’s tricks in that suit won’t go away, so now is the time to look for something better.
Both Alain Levy and Roy Welland, at their respective tables, found the devastating trump shift. Declarer took his ace (if he finesses, he is sunk on a second diamond play), but in doing so, lost his only fast entry back to hand.
Each South now tried the club king from hand, but both Wests continued the good work on defense. They ducked the first club, won the second and played a second diamond. Declarer rose with the ace and now only needed to return to hand in order to discard the diamond loser on the clubs.
So they played the heart ace and king, and ruffed a heart high as their hand entry. No such luck! The defense could over-ruff and cash the diamond king for down one.
The sensible way to play in this auction (if not using three clubs as the Wolff signoff) is to make all calls forcing, except a pass. So you can bid three hearts to show five hearts and a forcing hand. If your partner had opened one club, you might have simply raised to three no-trump, but that small doubleton spade is a danger signal.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 6 5 ♥ Q J 9 8 5 ♦ K J 8 ♣ 10 8 6 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♥ | Pass | 2 NT | Pass |
| ? |
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Great quote today on evolutionary baggage-tribalism at one point helped our survival, but now with our smaller planet has the potential to lead to our downfall. Another evolutionary remnant is our relative difficulty with probabilistic reasoning, and understanding as Tversky and Kahneman put it, “Thinking fast and slow”. This is one area that Bobby’s efforts to have young people exposed to Bridge, for instance in school, will help hone an inherently weak or unnatural way of thinking (lack of facility with probability, deduction and inference, (with our host and readers obvious exceptions)) that hinders us all and leads society astray. Maybe Bridge can help save us from our natural weaknesses and preserve the world. Too much to ask?
Hi Joe1,
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from Carl Sagan’s vision, especially noting the thin ice through which this troubled world now navigates.
Yes, learning bridge helps our logical reasoning, especially applied to working with numbers, but also how to both communicate and function with only a single partner by using limited but hopefully legal, sign language.
Of course, the fierce competition always involved, particularly at higher levels, should satisfy the voracious human instinct of competition, particularly so since no weapons, nor body armor is necessary.
Yes, I also appreciate your final question and although saving the world, might be a bit beyond our reach, it is not a strange phenomenon to me that every country I have had the pleasure and privilege of playing against for many years helps choose his or her friends and icons based on both bridge enthusiasm and, of course, talent, not on personal bias, religion, color, race or looks. And all serious players treat everyone with the respect they acquire, to why we are together.
Whether it is too much to ask is, of course, a huge tribute, but whether or not there is a positive waiting at the end of the rainbow, it makes me feel great, just to consider the possibility.
A special thanks to you, for allowing me to dream.