The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 20th, 2019
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
| E | North |
|---|---|
| None | ♠ K Q 7 5 2 ♥ 10 4 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ Q J 5 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ 9 3 ♥ K 9 6 5 ♦ Q 10 3 ♣ A 10 9 3 |
♠ 10 8 6 4 ♥ Q ♦ K J 8 7 5 2 ♣ 8 2 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ A J ♥ A J 8 7 3 ♦ A 4 ♣ K 7 6 4 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ♦ | |||
| 2 ♥ | 3 ♦ | 3 ♥ | Pass |
| 4 ♥ | All pass |
♦3
At the Philadelphia Spring Nationals, David Grainger was the hero in this deal from the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams. Declaring four hearts, he won the low diamond lead and played three rounds of spades, discarding a diamond. West ruffed the third spade and returned a diamond. Put yourself in Grainger’s shoes: You ruff and … what’s your plan?
Grainger inferred East’s likely shape as 4162, since if East had had a singleton club, his partner would have known to give him the ruff. So he needed to find East with a singleton heart honor. Accordingly, South cashed the heart ace, dropping the queen, then led a club to the jack.
Declarer next ruffed a spade with the heart jack, leaving West no good options. In essence, he was squeezed in three suits, one of which was trump. An overruff or an underruff would clearly have been fatal, so West chose to discard a diamond. Declarer now simply led a trump toward dummy’s 10 and was home no matter what West did, since South could draw the last trump sooner or later, then give up a club.
If West had pitched a club instead of a diamond, declarer would have led a club toward dummy. If West had risen with the club ace and led a diamond, declarer could — for example — pitch a club from dummy and ruff in hand. Then the club king followed by another club act as surrogate trumps, limiting the defense to just one more trump trick.
The fact that your right-hand opponent has shown four spades shouldn’t stop you from simply raising to two hearts, the value call on your hand. Although your trumps are weak, your defensive values aren’t that remarkable and your overall hand is just fine for the simple raise of hearts. Don’t pass and back in later; that lets the opponents establish their optimal fit and level too easily.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ K Q 7 5 2 ♥ 10 4 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ Q J 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | 1 ♥ | Dbl. | |
| ? |
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Well, in the Mud Cup, I played this in 4S!
Pard later said he thought he might be a bit strong for a simple overcall, and that his hearts were on the thin side. Maybe he even thought 3N or 5C was our destiny. Honestly, I think he did not want to play the hand.
In any case, he doubled, West inserted a diamond raise, and I bid 4S.
East led a diamond. I won, played South’s two top spades, and led a small club to my (North) hand.
West ducked to prevent me from having 10 easy tricks, and I won the QC and drew the remaining trump.
I placed East with six diamonds missing an honor, and had seen him follow to four spades and one club. This left him with only two missing cards. Given the 2D opening, it almost certainly had to include a heart honor.
Thus, playing for 3-3 clubs giving East only 4 or 5 HCPs and a heart void seemed against the odds, especially as West might have risen with the AC and given East a club ruff.
So I led a low heart towards the Board and all was well.
Well, I’m confused now; was that the Mud Cup or the Slush Cup?
At any rate, well done Jim2!
Michael
Hi Jim2,
We all appreciate your exciting adventures at the Mud Cup in Lower Slobovia.
And especially the bridge educational advantages of making excellent use of sometimes thought to be overrated knaves.
While declarer, everyone of your three jacks was critical to your success, in reality serving the role of a full trick in each instance.
But the real prize was winning the Mud Cup, no trivial matter when fighting threw the slush of the competition. In the past, that winner was given a date with Lena (of Hyena fame) for the next year, something to greatly cherish.
However, since you might have been a bit embarrassed to mention, your TOCM TM is allergic to that special venue and does not often, if ever, make its presence felt.
In any event perhaps the experience of your partner, in making a TO double, instead of a heart overcall, will make better players of all of us who noticed. Trust partner and do not hog the bidding, but that reference will only remind me to give Lena a kiss for me next year. Certainly better you than me.
Once met, never forgotten and many congratulations for, no doubt, bringing home all those cold contracts.
Hi Michael,
Both the Mud and Slush cups are only held at that particularl tournament, taking the place of the normal Men’s Women’s and Mixed Events held at others or is Men’s now called Open?
Both their names identify the beautiful weather generally available at that special tournament to which it rarely disappoints.
Michael Beyrouti –
I went back and checked my convention card. The level of grime on it was higher than the water stain level, so it was definitely the Mud Cup.
(and TY!)
With a total of 15 points between them, 3 Diamonds was not remotely possible; what would have happened if North-South passed 3D?
Hi Ozzie,
True, if EW would have been allowed to play 3 diamonds as a final contract, no doubt only 8 tricks would have been taken (5 diamond tricks in hand, 1 heart, 1 club, and a spade ruff in the dummy.
However NS had greater fish to fry, by bidding game in hearts (10 tricks) and fulfilling that contract which would be judged in either tournament bridge or rubber bridge as worth about 420 points instead of the measly 50 they would get for defeating 3 diamonds 1 trick.
IOW EW would have pulled off a very valuable coup to buy the hand at 3 diamonds, even doubled and down 1 as the most their opponents would score is +100 if they had first doubled and then defended that 9 trick contract.
Therefore, it often pays to bid defensively, even though the opponents have the most high cards (points), in this case 25 to 15.
Another reason to enter the bidding, although thought to be overpowered in strength, is inform partner what suit to lead, giving the defense a greater likelihood of defending better, even though the opponents, at least on that hand, have a much better chance of scoring a plus score.
Of course our great game has much more to it, then just the above, but basically it is necessary to learn the basics before beginning to fall in love with it, the more one is lucky to be able to play it often.