The Aces on Bridge: Monday, May 18th, 2015
It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.
Isaac Asimov
| S | North |
|---|---|
| Both | ♠ A 9 2 ♥ Q J 6 ♦ K J 8 6 ♣ 10 5 3 |
| West | East |
|---|---|
| ♠ J 6 5 3 ♥ K 10 7 2 ♦ Q 3 ♣ K 4 2 |
♠ Q 10 8 7 ♥ A 9 8 5 4 ♦ — ♣ Q 9 8 6 |
| South |
|---|
| ♠ K 4 ♥ 3 ♦ A 10 9 7 5 4 2 ♣ A J 7 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | Pass | 2 ♦* | Pass |
| 3 ♣ | Pass | 3 ♦ | Pass |
| 5 ♦ | All pass |
*At least an invitational raise
♥2
When North raised diamonds at his first turn instead of bidding two no-trump, it made reaching the no-trump game much harder. Probing for no-trump, but worried about the hearts, South tried three clubs, but North was reluctant to bite the bullet, and South settled for the minor-suit game. Against this contract West led the heart two.
Dummy’s jack lost to the ace and a spade came back, giving nothing away. South did the best he could when he won in hand and led a trump to dummy. Then he led the club 10 from dummy at once, hoping East would forget to cover. Alas for declarer, East was on the ball, and when he covered the club 10 with the queen, South ended up losing two club tricks, to go one off.
Note that had East returned a heart at trick two, declarer simply discards a club and can set up a heart winner in dummy for his remaining club loser. But can you see a neat way for South to have improved his chances at trick one? Try playing the heart six from dummy at trick one, instead of the jack. This puts East under a lot of pressure – it could so easily be wrong for him to insert the heart eight, and so he would almost certainly have gone up with his ace. Now whatever the defenders do, declarer can establish a home for his club losers on the hearts, or the defense must play clubs themselves and achieve the same result.
I would lead the diamond ace to try to get a force going on declarer, expecting him to have relatively short diamonds. Yes it might set up a diamond winner in dummy, but this is against the odds. And in any event a slow discard for declarer may not be critical.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
| ♠ 9 4 2 ♥ 10 7 6 3 ♦ A 7 6 4 ♣ K 8 |
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ♦ | 1 ♥ | ||
| 2 ♦ | 2 ♥ | 3 ♦ | 3 ♥ |
| All pass |
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Nice one, Bobby, and Billy Eisenberg’s Bols tip was very similar. The flaw, of course, is that declarer’s have played the HJ before thinking of ducking. This is a very general piece of advice – “Engage brain before calling for card at T1”. If hit round the head enough times, I might even manage to follow it.
regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
But if hit enough times, you may be too bruised to play well or at all.
Of course, a Jim2 opponent would have been underleading the AK of hearts (but not the ten) in order to get a club lead back through to his KQ, allowing for South’s teammates to eventually ask, “No ruffs are available to the defense and the AK of hearts were always onside, so how did you manage to go down in 5 diamonds?” followed by “I don’t care if you are betting on the opponents on this match, and, assuming you are, we would then like part of the action”.
🙂
Don’t mind me – “no sense, no feeling” as they say
Hi Jim2,
I should be sending you the smiley, but do not because I do not know how.
Hi Iain,
Your constant reference to impatience is probably the #1 fault of the player with all that natural talent, but so little time given to look before one leaps.