The Aces on Bridge: Monday, May 20th, 2013
What mischief cleaves to unsubdued regret,
How fancy sickens by vague hopes beset;
How baffled projects on the spirit prey,
And fruitless wishes eat the heart away.
William Wordsworth
| North | North |
|---|---|
| North-South | ♠ K 9 5 3 ♥ A K 3 2 ♦ — ♣ A K Q 9 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 10 2 ♥ 8 6 4 ♦ Q J 5 ♣ 10 7 6 2 |
♠ A Q 8 4 ♥ 10 9 ♦ K 9 7 4 3 ♣ J 4 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ 7 6 ♥ Q J 7 5 ♦ A 10 8 6 2 ♣ 8 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | 1♦ | ||
| Pass | 2♦ | Dbl. | Pass |
| 2♥ | Pass | 3♥ | Pass |
| 4♥ | All pass |
♦Q
In today's deal from the Dyspeptics Club, South had been tempted to pass North's takeout double of two diamonds, but in the end preferred to bid his chunky four-card heart suit. How would you plan the play in four hearts on a diamond lead?
At the table declarer ruffed the diamond lead in dummy, drew trump. played the three top clubs, and ruffed a club. He next played a spade to the jack, king and ace, and eventually had to go one down.
Feeling unusually contrite, South asked his partner if he might have done better. North consoled him, telling him that there was a double-dummy way he might have gone down two!
South should have seen that if hearts broke, he would have five trump tricks, three clubs and the diamond ace, so four club tricks would suffice. Instead of taking dummy’s entry out prematurely by ruffing the diamond, he should have won the opening lead with his ace, pitching a spade from dummy, drawn trump, and now played his clubs. If they had broken 3-3. he would have made an overtrick; as it was, he would ruff out the clubs and lead a spade to the king to try for an overtrick.
Even after ruffing the opening lead, he had an easy road to recovery. After drawing trump ending in hand, he should simply have ducked a club to East. He could then have won the return and cashed the four club tricks needed.
If ever there was a hand where underleading an ace made sense, this is it. Dummy rates to have decent clubs while neither red suit looks safe, and a trump is impossible. Particularly as partner did not raise clubs, you won't lose your ace by underleading it.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
| ♠ A J 8 4 ♥ Q 10 7 ♦ K 9 ♣ A 7 4 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | Dbl. | Pass | 1♠ |
| Pass | 1 NT | Pass | 2♠ |
| All pass |
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The blog is out of sync with the print version of two weeks ago. Today’s Monday May 20 article should have appeared tomorrow, not today.
I loved the answer to LWTA! Yeap, it makes sense.
Best regards.
Hi Michael,
Yes, I am in the process of investigating why my blog site is one day ahead, and has been for some time, instead of printing the delayed columns exactly two weeks ahead. Perhaps they are making it easy on themselves, especially during weekends, but I intend to find out the reason.
I’m happy that you loved the underlead of an ace in the current LWTA hand, since I certainly agree, though an unusual choice, it looks best, although finding the right lead is quite often an almost random choice.