The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
Mike Tyson
| North | North |
|---|---|
| East-West | ♠ Q J 4 ♥ 8 3 ♦ Q 7 6 5 2 ♣ Q 4 2 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ A K 10 9 6 2 ♥ K 9 4 ♦ J ♣ J 10 9 |
♠ 8 3 ♥ 10 5 ♦ 10 9 8 4 3 ♣ 8 7 6 5 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ 7 5 ♥ A Q J 7 6 2 ♦ A K ♣ A K 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | ||
| 2♣ | 2♠ | Pass | Pass |
| 3♥ | Pass | 3 NT | Pass |
| 4♥ | All pass |
♠K
Against four hearts West leads the spade king, which when dummy comes down with the queen and length, is clearly asking East to give count in the suit. When East indicates either a singleton or an even number of spades by playing the eight, West continues with the spade ace, everyone following. How should the defense continue?
The defense has been facilitated for West by the auction. If West counts his own hand and dummy, he comes to the grand total of 19 HCP. South has opened with a forcing two-club call. How many defensive tricks can one reasonably play partner for? I’d say zero would be a realistic number!
However, giving up now would be unduly pessimistic. If you can arrange for East to cooperate, you might find him with just enough in the way of trump spots to come through for you. Lead a third spade — in this position I’d play the highest of my spades to ask partner to ruff high — and keep my fingers crossed.
If East can ruff in with the heart 10, it ensures that West can make not one but two trump tricks from his heart K-9-4. Declarer must overruff, of course, or he is down at once, and now South’s trump holding has been weakened so that the nine is promoted to a second natural winner. This maneuver is called the uppercut and is almost as painful to the recipient as its boxing equivalent.
You are far too good to sell out to two clubs, though I admit it might be your last chance to go plus on a really bad day. The simple way to balance here is with a two-diamond call. The intellectual choice is to bid two spades, suggesting this sort of hand, or you would have bid spades first. I prefer the simple route.
BID WITH THE ACES
| ♠ Q J 4 ♥ 8 3 ♦ Q 7 6 5 2 ♣ Q 4 2 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♣ | Dbl. | Pass | |
| 1♦ | 2♣ | Pass | Pass |
| ? |
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Bridge-related
Dear Mr Wolff
The interesting part of the deal is had South respected North’s choice of 3NT he would have had decent chance of success. Only Spade AK & back beats 3 NT on Spade 8 lead. If West chooses to duck first sapde to North in order to keep communication alive with East he can be endplayed with a Spade to get ninth trick in 3 NT or if West bares Heart King playing Heart Ace would make 12 tricks in 3 NT.
best regards
Shantanu Rastogi
Dear Mr Wolff,
that’s an interesting new take on the preference signal. You lead a high spade to ask partner to ruff high. Usually, the high spade is an indication to return the highest of the two remaining suits. Partner is supposed to ruff with his highest trump anyway. Is there a risk he might not do that?
Hi Shantanu, Bobby,
North might have had a hand far less suitable for 4H too e.g. QJx x Qxxx QJxxx and the likely 4-2 trump break scuppers 4H when 3N is easy. South could also reflect that if he passes and. 3N fails but 4H makes, he wins the post mortem!
Iain
On BTWA, with 5 diamonds and 4 spades, how would you change your bidding? I get that it is easier to bid 2S on the second round, but if partner had say 4=4=3=2 it would be hard for partner to know to stop at 2S or bid 3D.
Hi Shantanu, Michael, and Iain,
Yes, you three wise men have all contributed to the lively discussion necessary to cover the ever interesting details which usually are reserved for the post-mortem, always preferred by the winners of that hand, this time the defenders.
It was certainly necessary for West to get in there with his vulnerable 2 level overcall, without which, if North becomes declarer at 3NT, a distinct possibility, it will take a spade lead, otherwise NS will score up at least 10 tricks. Can one just hear West complaining, “Sure I could overcall but would you, pard, being vulnerable and hearing a strong 2 bid on your right?”
Or, Michael, West saying,”Pard, how did you like my touch in leading my highest spade, the ten, asking you to ruff high so that we could uppercut South?” “I not only produced all 4 tricks for the defense I showed you how to cooperate to do it.” Although he might say such a thing, you are correct that the high spade only suggested, once you ruff l prefer you leading the highest ranking suit back. However East had the “smarts” (if it took any) to ruff high thereby completing the trump uppercut.
No doubt, Iain, North’s 3NT bid could easily be the hand you have chosen or many related hands which would produce a slow spade trick, 1 heart and 8 or even 9 other minor suit tricks without having to fool around with even a good heart suit to add up to 10, the extra trick needed in a major suit game rather than 3NT.
However, it is all judgment, which goes into such a decision, but it may be worth noting that even KQJ876, a holding many good players would rather play in a suit than NT, would be a poor choice here, but what if North was only signalling a spade trick (perhaps the king, but also had the 10 of hearts, thereby warding off the uppercut bogeyman).
Tough game bridge, causing the lesson continually to be practiced is to when competing at a high level (or, for that matter, on any level), take the hands one at a time, not changing the mood (though suffering silently) and being able to take adversity (only often 1 hand away and always in the picture), but ready to only offer one’s best on the next hand regardless of the result on the current one.
Hi Ryan,
First, thanks for the topical question.
Let’s pretend that South’s hand is: s. Qxxx, h. Qx, d. Qxxxx, c. xx instead of the hand given in the BWTA. When it goes 1C, Dbl, P I would suggest South to bid 1 spade, not 1 diamond.
That action could be called “running for daylight” since if game happened to be in the cards for NS it is much more likely to be in a major suit than a minor. Next, if it then went 2 clubs by the opening bidder P, P back to South, he should then volunteer 2 diamonds, but partner (North) needs to keep in mind that
his partner is more likely to have more diamonds than spades, so if he had 3 of both suits, he should prefer diamonds and pass rather than show a preference for South’s 1st bid, spades.
Finally if South actually did have, though relatively weak (5-7 points) but had 5 spades and only 4 diamonds, he should eschew showing diamonds and merely rebid 2 spades, a suit partner should have at least 3 of, for his TO dbl. The above sequence, though sometimes slightly awkward, usually solves the bridge problem of playing in a major and with at least a tie for the longest combined trump suit held by the opponents of the opening bidder.