Fascinating machinations in the play of the hand but a quick word about the quote. It was used in te comedy film “Carry on Cleo” where Julius Caesar (played by a rather camp and very funny actor called Kenneth Williams) is about to be assassinated. The series of Carry On films were a particularly British quirk, best described as a mixture of lavatorial and seaside humour and riddled with terrible puns. I would recommend Carry on Screaming though, which is a wonderful send up of Hammer Horror films.
Regards,
Iain
Iain ClimieJune 19th, 2021 at 10:23 am
just a quick follow up – if east returns the S10, don’t the pips mean that he only makes the SK and S9 Where is the 3rd spade trick coming from? What am I missing here?
Iain
bobbywolffJune 19th, 2021 at 3:26 pm
Hi Iain,
At the point that Benito won the queen of spades with his king he led a second diamond, allowing dummy to win in dummy and then declarer cashed the spade jack, allowing Garozzo to hop ace of hearts, then cash two more spades and partner’s club ace. (3 spade tricks and two aces).
Declarer had to hope that the spades would block or, as the column stated, first lead a diamond to the ace allowing more flexibility with the diamond spots.
At least, so it seems to me.
Thanks for your updates and recommendations.
A V Ramana RaoJune 19th, 2021 at 3:29 pm
Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Interesting point about the hand as played is south goes down if clubs are 5-3 and to avoid going down , south needs to play east for heart A as his entries get entangled. But in that case, he could have played a heart at T2 and made nine tricks because whether east takes hearts A or not, south has tempo to make nine tricks
Regards
bobbywolffJune 19th, 2021 at 4:13 pm
Hi AVRR,
But only if he guesses the hearts correctly, and whether the reason is percentage, superstition or attempted magic, the one almost inviolate rule that the greatest ever players follow (and Benito is certainly one of those, even while being in his 90s, but with baggage), the inviolate decision to postpone contract deciding plays until the last moment possible.
No doubt East might rise with his ace, since he had it, but, if he didn’t rise with it, that fact alone might have resulted in a wrong guess by declarer.
At least to me, that feature of our game is perhaps the crucial one in regarding high-level bridge, far and away the best card game ever, as well as also being the greatest mind game, defeating chess, by requiring more different types of skills to excel.
And if some others think that designation is wrong and that for games, poker is. I’ll counter by saying that poker is not really a card game, only using cards as symbols and not as varied, since almost all crucial hands in poker require people skill, not technical thought (all expert poker players know (or should) the hand to hand percentages).
Iain ClimieJune 19th, 2021 at 9:56 pm
Hi Bobby,
I’m clearly missing something but East plays a small spade on the Ace, then takes the SQ with the King so has S1096 with dummy holding J73 and the defence have 1 spade trick. Now the S10 is taken by the J leaving dummy with S73 and East with S96. Surely east has only 1 more spade trick unless the 6 and 7 have been swapped in the hand records.
Iain
bobbywolffJune 19th, 2021 at 10:38 pm
Hi Iain,
Just arrived back at the bridge ranch and think the defense prevailed, but not with the ending you suggest. Perhaps the column writing could be clearer but I do not believe it wound up with only the spade holding emphasized, but rather East being enabled to make sure of the setting trick.
However, since I have not recently delved deeply into the ending, I am just relaying what I think I felt last time I looked, but like Jim2, my head is starting to hurt.
Perhaps someone else can verify your contention or not, keeping in mind the plays leading up to whatever the result became.
A V Ramana RaoJune 20th, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Hi lain
Saw the post belatedly just now. Perhaps you are considering the situation when east returns spade ten after winning spade K in which case, defense is restricted to two spades, one heart and one club but please read next sentence in the column line ” even better , though , was for east……… ” . Now, once east returns a diamond, if declarer wins in dummy, he needs to cash spade J else it gets stranded and if he cashes and leads a club immediately or after cashing diamonds, west wins and returns heart. East wins and cashes two spades taking the contract down. They are two different scenarios . East returning spade ten and returning diamond after winning spade K
Regards
Iain ClimieJune 20th, 2021 at 5:31 pm
Hi AVRR,
Thanks for that, you were awake as ever and I was a little less so. One of these days I’ll read the column more carefully or twice before posting.
Iain
A.V.Ramana RaoJune 21st, 2021 at 10:31 am
Hi lain
Never mind . It happened to me many times. a simple blind spot perhaps which need not be taken seriously
Regards
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Hi Bobby,
Fascinating machinations in the play of the hand but a quick word about the quote. It was used in te comedy film “Carry on Cleo” where Julius Caesar (played by a rather camp and very funny actor called Kenneth Williams) is about to be assassinated. The series of Carry On films were a particularly British quirk, best described as a mixture of lavatorial and seaside humour and riddled with terrible puns. I would recommend Carry on Screaming though, which is a wonderful send up of Hammer Horror films.
Regards,
Iain
just a quick follow up – if east returns the S10, don’t the pips mean that he only makes the SK and S9 Where is the 3rd spade trick coming from? What am I missing here?
Iain
Hi Iain,
At the point that Benito won the queen of spades with his king he led a second diamond, allowing dummy to win in dummy and then declarer cashed the spade jack, allowing Garozzo to hop ace of hearts, then cash two more spades and partner’s club ace. (3 spade tricks and two aces).
Declarer had to hope that the spades would block or, as the column stated, first lead a diamond to the ace allowing more flexibility with the diamond spots.
At least, so it seems to me.
Thanks for your updates and recommendations.
Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Interesting point about the hand as played is south goes down if clubs are 5-3 and to avoid going down , south needs to play east for heart A as his entries get entangled. But in that case, he could have played a heart at T2 and made nine tricks because whether east takes hearts A or not, south has tempo to make nine tricks
Regards
Hi AVRR,
But only if he guesses the hearts correctly, and whether the reason is percentage, superstition or attempted magic, the one almost inviolate rule that the greatest ever players follow (and Benito is certainly one of those, even while being in his 90s, but with baggage), the inviolate decision to postpone contract deciding plays until the last moment possible.
No doubt East might rise with his ace, since he had it, but, if he didn’t rise with it, that fact alone might have resulted in a wrong guess by declarer.
At least to me, that feature of our game is perhaps the crucial one in regarding high-level bridge, far and away the best card game ever, as well as also being the greatest mind game, defeating chess, by requiring more different types of skills to excel.
And if some others think that designation is wrong and that for games, poker is. I’ll counter by saying that poker is not really a card game, only using cards as symbols and not as varied, since almost all crucial hands in poker require people skill, not technical thought (all expert poker players know (or should) the hand to hand percentages).
Hi Bobby,
I’m clearly missing something but East plays a small spade on the Ace, then takes the SQ with the King so has S1096 with dummy holding J73 and the defence have 1 spade trick. Now the S10 is taken by the J leaving dummy with S73 and East with S96. Surely east has only 1 more spade trick unless the 6 and 7 have been swapped in the hand records.
Iain
Hi Iain,
Just arrived back at the bridge ranch and think the defense prevailed, but not with the ending you suggest. Perhaps the column writing could be clearer but I do not believe it wound up with only the spade holding emphasized, but rather East being enabled to make sure of the setting trick.
However, since I have not recently delved deeply into the ending, I am just relaying what I think I felt last time I looked, but like Jim2, my head is starting to hurt.
Perhaps someone else can verify your contention or not, keeping in mind the plays leading up to whatever the result became.
Hi lain
Saw the post belatedly just now. Perhaps you are considering the situation when east returns spade ten after winning spade K in which case, defense is restricted to two spades, one heart and one club but please read next sentence in the column line ” even better , though , was for east……… ” . Now, once east returns a diamond, if declarer wins in dummy, he needs to cash spade J else it gets stranded and if he cashes and leads a club immediately or after cashing diamonds, west wins and returns heart. East wins and cashes two spades taking the contract down. They are two different scenarios . East returning spade ten and returning diamond after winning spade K
Regards
Hi AVRR,
Thanks for that, you were awake as ever and I was a little less so. One of these days I’ll read the column more carefully or twice before posting.
Iain
Hi lain
Never mind . It happened to me many times. a simple blind spot perhaps which need not be taken seriously
Regards