Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, May 20th, 2018

As a club director, I am occasionally faced with the problem of how to make rulings that involve pairs who may never return to the club if I rule against them! Is it acceptable to give average to one or both sides in such cases? What about late-play penalties?

Tic-Tac-Toe, Panama City, Fla.

You have to make a living, I admit, but you must weigh that need against the integrity of the event and the objective of being fair to everyone. If that means administering the occasional average minus, so be it. There is no room for negotiation in the laws on revokes, penalty cards or insufficient bids. Where you can be tactful is with unauthorized information, where you can discuss the players’ obligations after the event.

I’ve been told that when my partner opens one club and North overcalls one diamond, the bid of a major shows four; but when partner bids one club and the next hand overcalls one heart, bidding one spade shows five or more. What is the thinking behind these bidding rules?

Champion the Wonder Horse, Salinas, Calif.

The logic is based on the number of unbid majors. In the first instance, you can bid either hearts or spades with one suit but not the other, and double with either. If bidding a major showed five, you would have no way to introduce a four-card major. When one major has been bid, the double takes care of some hands with the unbid major; bidding the suit takes care of the rest. Thus, over one heart, since you double with four spades, one spade shows five.

I held ♠ Q-7-2,  A-K-3,  Q-8-7-5-4, ♣ 10-3, and my partner opened three spades. The next hand passed without a flicker, and I had to decide whether to raise at once or pass and reconsider if they bid four hearts. We were non-vulnerable, and my partner is relatively disciplined, by the way.

Tightly Wound, Montreal

You might easily go down three in four spades or find that game had decent play. So it is a toss-up, but since you want the opponents to have the last guess, not you, I would raise to game and give them the hardest decision I can.

I’ve been out of bridge for a while and need clarification on the niceties of what to do when making a jump-bid. I thought it was right to say something or use a card when jumping. And I thought it was right to pause after a skip bid whether or not you intend to bid. I’ve been told the rules have changed; is that right?

Sitting Duck, Dayton, Ohio

You are still right in some regards, even though the rules have changed for reasons that remain unclear to me. The original idea was to draw your LHO’s attention to the jump to prevent him acting prematurely, and to force him to pause whether he had an easy action or not. Now, even though the ‘stop’ card has been dispensed with, the next player should still pause for 10 seconds whether you intend to bid or not.

I held this hand: ♠ K-5,  7-2,  K-Q-10-8-7-4-2, ♣ 9-7. My partner opened one spade, and I felt I did not have enough to force to game or to invite game with three diamonds. So I responded one no-trump, and since my partner had a small doubleton diamond and no spade ace, we ended up going down. But three diamonds would have been easy. What went wrong?

Fox and Grapes, Seneca, S.C.

If your partnership style is to use three-level jumps as invitational, you must bid one here. It may not be perfect, but it is hardly an overbid at all. If that tool is not in your kit, you may have to bid one no-trump and play there. Not such a great recommendation for the methods!


For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, May 19th, 2018

In our tenure on this planet, we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt.

Carl Sagan


S North
N-S ♠ Q 7 3 2
 A K 7 6
 A Q 4
♣ 4 2
West East
♠ K 9
 10 4
 9 7 6 3
♣ A 9 7 5 3
♠ 6 5
 Q J 9 8 5
 K J 8
♣ 10 8 6
South
♠ A J 10 8 4
 3 2
 10 5 2
♣ K Q J
South West North East
1 ♠ Pass 2 NT* Pass
4 ♠ All pass    

*Forcing spade raise

7

On this deal from the Cavendish pairs, it was demonstrated that the downsides of opening light are not limited to getting too high once in a while. Where I was watching, Amos Kaminski passed the South hand, and a transfer auction to four spades saw Piotr Gawrys (North) have no problems on a club lead.

By contrast, both Geir Helgemo and Fred Stewart opened the South hand, the former fueled by youthful exuberance, and the latter by a strong club system. After a game-forcing trump raise, both played four spades on a diamond lead to the jack.

It looks normal to go after clubs now as East, doesn’t it? Think again — there is no hurry to lead clubs. Partner’s tricks in that suit won’t go away, so now is the time to look for something better.

Both Alain Levy and Roy Welland, at their respective tables, found the devastating trump shift. Declarer took his ace (if he finesses, he is sunk on a second diamond play), but in doing so, lost his only fast entry back to hand.

Each South now tried the club king from hand, but both Wests continued the good work on defense. They ducked the first club, won the second and played a second diamond. Declarer rose with the ace and now only needed to return to hand in order to discard the diamond loser on the clubs.

So they played the heart ace and king, and ruffed a heart high as their hand entry. No such luck! The defense could over-ruff and cash the diamond king for down one.


The sensible way to play in this auction (if not using three clubs as the Wolff signoff) is to make all calls forcing, except a pass. So you can bid three hearts to show five hearts and a forcing hand. If your partner had opened one club, you might have simply raised to three no-trump, but that small doubleton spade is a danger signal.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ 6 5
 Q J 9 8 5
 K J 8
♣ 10 8 6
South West North East
    1 Pass
1 Pass 2 NT Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, May 18th, 2018

Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.

Friedrich Schiller


S North
E-W ♠ K Q 6 4 2
 K 7 2
 Q 10 8 6
♣ 8
West East
♠ 10 8 5
 Q 9 5
 7 3
♣ K 7 6 5 4
♠ A J 9 7 3
 6
 9 5 4
♣ A J 10 2
South
♠ —
 A J 10 8 4 3
 A K J 2
♣ Q 9 3
South West North East
1 Pass 3 ♣* Pass
6 All pass    

*Limit raise with three trumps

♠5

Zia Mahmood achieved his first reportable coup of the 2001 Cavendish Invitational pairs competition on the very first deal. (And what took him so long, you might ask.) Zia, as South, opened one heart, and his partner, Billy Eisenberg, jumped to three clubs (systematically, to show a limit raise with four trumps or an unbalanced three-card limit raise). Zia tried a delicate six hearts, and Espen Erichsen, as West, led a spade to the king and ace.

When Zia advanced the club queen, Erichsen won with the club king to play a second spade. At this point, Zia had to find the heart queen. He reasoned that Erichsen’s decision to win the club king and return a spade (instead of a trump, or as opposed to letting his partner win the club ace) meant that he must have the heart queen.

Accordingly, Zia, who has never lacked the courage of his convictions, ruffed the spade return and ran the heart jack to make his slam.

I was lucky enough to make the slam against world champion opponents after the defense cashed the club ace and tried to cash the spade ace. Now there were enough inferences for me to negotiate the trump suit, though it was by no means a foregone conclusion to get it right.

While I was happy with my result, I will not name the declarer who made a more expensive play. At another table, Ishmael Del’Monte and Neville Eber got to defend against six diamonds doubled, but declarer misguessed hearts, turning a huge potential gain into a huge loss.


East’s double of one club should not significantly influence your choice here. With a six-loser hand, you certainly have enough to try for game. The question is whether you should jump to four spades or make a game try of three diamonds. I could go either way on this hand.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ K Q 6 4 2
 K 7 2
 Q 10 8 6
♣ 8
South West North East
  Pass 1 ♣ Dbl.
1 ♠ Pass 2 ♠ Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, May 17th, 2018

If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.

John Maynard Keynes


S North
N-S ♠ K
 K 10 5 2
 A K Q 7 2
♣ A J 4
West East
♠ Q J 10 6 2
 A J 4
 J 8
♣ K 8 7
♠ 9 8 7 4
 3
 10 6 5 4
♣ 10 9 3 2
South
♠ A 5 3
 Q 9 8 7 6
 9 3
♣ Q 6 5
South West North East
Pass 1 ♠ Dbl. 4 ♠
Dbl. Pass 4 NT Pass
5 Pass 6 All pass

♠Q

The 2001 Cavendish Invitational pairs competition featured a number of well-played hands. This deal saw two declarers follow similar routes to success.

Guido Ferraro, playing with Giorgio Duboin, declared six hearts on the auction shown. After a spade lead, Ferraro correctly assumed that East’s jump to game — with what appeared to be a Yarborough and only four trumps — argued strongly for shortness in hearts. So he made the critical play when he won the king and cashed the diamond ace and king before leading a heart to the queen.

This maneuver is sometimes referred to as the Dentist’s Coup. It had the effect of extracting West’s troublesome doubleton diamond. Accordingly, when West won the heart ace, he had to return a black suit. That let declarer cross to hand to finesse in hearts and make his slam.

Note that if declarer had not cashed two rounds of diamonds, West could have won the heart ace and exited in diamonds, locking declarer in dummy.

Peter Weichsel and Rose Meltzer reached the same contract on a broadly similar auction where East had also raised spades aggressively. Weichsel received the spade queen lead and played the hand similarly to Ferraro, with one very slight refinement. He won the spade king, cashed the diamond ace and king, then played the heart 10 (unblocking, to facilitate later communication) to his queen and West’s ace. Again, West had to concede a black-suit entry to the South hand, allowing him to take the heart finesse through the opening bidder.


It is tempting to pass for penalties, but the trump spots really do not feel good enough to me. Give me the heart 10 instead of a low heart, and I might consider that action. I’d prefer to bid one no-trump and try to win the event on the next deal.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ A 5 3
 Q 9 8 7 6
 9 3
♣ Q 6 5
South West North East
Pass 1 Dbl. Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, May 16th, 2018

No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe.

Third Marquess of Salisbury


S North
N-S ♠ Q 9 8 5 2
 K 9
 J 5 4
♣ Q J 6
West East
♠ J 7 6
 10 8 7 4
 10 3
♣ 10 8 4 3
♠ K 4 3
 Q J 6
 Q 9 8 7 6
♣ 9 2
South
♠ A 10
 A 5 3 2
 A K 2
♣ A K 7 5
South West North East
2 ♣ Pass 2 Pass
2 NT Pass 3 Pass
3 ♠ Pass 5 NT Pass
6 NT All pass    

8

The Cavendish Invitational brings together the world’s best pairs and teams for a week of competition with some of the largest cash prizes in bridge. It is currently held in Monaco, but for many years it was organized in Las Vegas. One of the favorites in those years was the partnership of Brad Moss and Fred Gitelman, who had considerable success both as a partnership and individually. Gitelman combines a talent for playing the game with a real acumen for marketing the game through computers and the internet.

Gitelman is the developer of Bridge Master, educational software that features many useful elements of technique to improve the game of everyone from beginners to experts. It was therefore especially piquant that today’s deal cropped up as a problem for Gitelman in the 2001 Cavendish Pairs.

Of all the little-known percentage plays, one of the most obscure is featured in the spade suit on this deal. There might be something to be said for playing six clubs here, but six no-trump looks like the more normal spot. How should you play the key suit of spades to maximize your chances for four tricks?

The answer is to run the spade queen! If the suit is 3-3, you have a blind guess; if the suit is 4-2, you can pick up three of the four honor-doubletons by leading the queen. No other play achieves that result. It is only fitting that when Gitelman was faced with the challenge in six no-trump, he duly made the right play and was rewarded when the cards cooperated.


This hand is worth a jump to three spades, which should be played as invitational, not forcing. Note: Many people play two no-trump as artificial here, an extension of Lebensohl. If you do that, the jump to three spades shows five, while going through two no-trump to three spades shows four.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ Q 9 8 5 2
 K 9
 J 5 4
♣ Q J 6
South West North East
  2 Dbl. Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, May 15th, 2018

Stealing, of course, is a crime. … But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it would be excusable to grab (a) painting, take it to your house, and eat it.

Lemony Snicket


S North
Both ♠ J 5 3
 9 8 3
 K Q 10 9 3
♣ Q 8
West East
♠ K Q 4
 Q 10 4 2
 A 2
♣ K 10 7 4
♠ 10 9 8 7
 J 7 6
 7 6 5
♣ 6 5 2
South
♠ A 6 2
 A K 5
 J 8 4
♣ A J 9 3
South West North East
1 NT Pass 3 NT All pass

4

When this deal came up at the 2001 Cavendish teams event in Las Vegas, the daily bulletin remarked that Bruce Ferguson has made a career of trying to fool all of the people all of the time. The more outrageous things he does, the more people suspect him, so he has to keep trying ever more unusual tricks. But he still keeps reeling in the victims!

Consider this affair from the last match of the teams, where he caught another world champion and added yet one more notch to his belt.

If you play three no-trump as South, as did the vast majority of the field, you find the cards lying exceptionally well. With the diamond ace doubleton and spades and hearts apparently favorably located, it looks very hard to go down.

As West, Ferguson started the war of attrition by leading a deceptive heart four, playing fourth-highest leads. When you have a hand this strong, that can be a good move. When South ducked the first heart, Ferguson had won the first battle. Back came a second heart; South won, crossed to a top diamond and passed the club queen. Ferguson won and put the spade four on the table!

Declarer eyed this suspiciously and decided to duck. We can all see that this may not be technically supportable, but Ferguson had given him the chance to go wrong, and he took it. Now, when the club finesse lost, West had five winners. Ferguson left the table chortling, with yet another victim added to what is by now a rather long list.


Your partner has made a game try, and your hand is neither a clear acceptance nor rejection. A lot depends on whether your partner is short in hearts or in diamonds. Bid three diamonds to show this sort of diamond holding, and let your partner decide whether he wants to play game — and if so, which one.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ J 5 3
 9 8 3
 K Q 10 9 3
♣ Q 8
South West North East
    1 ♠ 2
2 ♠ Pass 3 ♣ Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Monday, May 14th, 2018

You need to try to do the impossible, to anticipate the unexpected. And when the unexpected happens, you should double the efforts to make order from the disorder it creates in your life.

A.S. Grove


N North
Both ♠ A 10 9 6 4 2
 —
 10 9 7
♣ A 10 7 6
West East
♠ 3
 K Q 7 6 4
 K Q 8 5 4 3
♣ Q
♠ K Q J 8 7 5
 A J 8 2
 J 6
♣ J
South
♠ —
 10 9 5 3
 A 2
♣ K 9 8 5 4 3 2
South West North East
    Pass 1 ♠
3 ♣ 3 5 ♣ 5
Pass Pass 6 ♣ Dbl.
All pass      

♠3

Today’s deal from the 2001 Cavendish Invitational teams event is a curiosity: How often do you gain IMPs for going five down in a freely bid game?

At one table, where Jon Wittes and Ross Grabel of the Onstott team were East and West respectively, their opponent in the North seat opened two spades. I’m not sure I agree with that action, and not just because the spade suit isn’t really strong enough for it. The problem is that the hand is so playable in two other denominations, and the combination of that with the two aces means that you will occasionally mislead your partner as to what your hand is all about. It rarely works as badly as it did today, however.

Over the two-spade pre-empt, Grabel (West) balanced with three diamonds, and Wittes bid three no-trump. There the matter rested, and after a club lead, the defenders took seven clubs and two aces, which was down five for minus 500. No double, no trouble.

The auction from the other room was as shown here. Roger Bates was South and Jim Robison North, the latter judging the auction very nicely by staying silent initially, then more than making up for it later. As the auction progressed, he could infer his partner’s length in hearts, and the potential of his own hand increased even further.

After a spade lead, Bates was able to pitch his diamond and crossruff. With trumps splitting 1-1, the play was straightforward for plus 1,540 and a gain of 14 IMPs.


The simple choice is between the red suits. With what looks like a natural trump trick, you don’t seem to need ruffs. My instinct is to lead the sequence and try to develop tricks in diamonds, since leading hearts may set up a slow winner for the opponents.

LEAD WITH THE ACES

♠ Q J 8
 5
 J 10 9 6 2
♣ J 9 5 3
South West North East
  Pass 1 Dbl.
Pass 1 NT Pass 4 ♠
All pass      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, May 13th, 2018

What should be the range associated with a jump overcall of a pre-emptive opener, or a jump in the balancing seat? And what about the situation when you are in sandwich seat, and the opponents open and respond, either in a new suit or with a raise of opener’s suit?

Leapy Lee, Augusta, Maine

Play strong jumps over pre-empts, while if the opponents pass an opening round to you, a jump should be something like an opening bid plus a good six-card suit. If the opponents bid and raise a suit, a jump by you at the three-level can by agreement be played as strong, not weak. However, if the opponents respond in a new suit, I’d advocate still playing weak jump overcalls. Next month, I’ll expound on the subject of Leaping and Non-Leaping Michaels.

Please clarify the meaning of bidding a suit an opponent has bid. I take it to mean a cue-bid, showing strength and asking partner to bid. When should one make this bid rather than doubling? I would only consider it following an opening bid; should it ever be considered over a response or an overcall?

Burton Ernie, Dallas, Texas

Let’s assume that, as an overcaller over an opening, you play Michaels or whatever two-suiter you agree. As third hand, your cue-bid of RHO’s suit shows fit and high cards, whereas a jump shows shape, not HCP. As fourth hand, the cue-bid shows a raise of overcaller’s suit. Once opener and responder haven’t set a trump suit, a cue-bid by either player below three no-trump tends to be a probe for three no-trump until proven to be a slam try with implicit or explicit fit.

Just about everybody I play bridge with has a different opinion on how to respond to a possibly short opening bid of one club. Some partners invent a one-diamond response with a weak hand. How do you feel about that?

Cave Canem, Grenada, Miss.

Even if you regularly open one club with a doubleton, I don’t see any reason to alter the structure of natural responses and to bid with fewer than, say, 4 HCP. As before, major-suit bids show four or more cards, while one no-trump is 6-10. It is only if you chose to play the one no-trump call as showing 8-10, rather than 6-10, that you might opt to invent a one-diamond response from time to time.

I picked up ♠ Q-8-4-2,  K-9-2,  10-7-4, ♣ Q-8-3, and heard my partner open one club. I bid one spade, and my partner then bid three spades. Was I wrong to pass, as opposed to raising to four spades? My partner had a singleton diamond, so game was good — but if he had had three diamonds and one heart, game would have been hopeless.

Just-So Stories, Durango, Colo.

This hand is on the cusp. Two of your three honors are surely working, but it is a 50-50 shot as to whether the heart king will play a part in the hand. I guess I would pass because of the lack of spade intermediates. Had partner opened one diamond instead of one club, I would pass three spades more happily.

We had a dispute in my regular partnership. I held ♠ Q-10,  10-8-4-2,  K-5-3, ♣ J-9-8-3 and heard my LHO open one diamond; my RHO responded one spade. When my LHO rebid no-trump, this came back to my partner, who doubled. What should this show?

A La Mode, Honolulu, Hawaii

Your partner’s double can sensibly be played in two ways. The first is my choice: It is a penalty double of spades with at least an opening bid. The second is to play the double as limited and take-out, but your spade shortness argues against that. I suppose you could even play it as either one or the other, requiring you to work out from your spade length which it is. Here, I would pass and lead the spade queen.


For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, May 12th, 2018

They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be
good.

T.S. Eliot


N North
N-S ♠ 9 5
 10 2
 K Q 6
♣ A K 10 9 4 2
West East
♠ K Q 3
 Q
 A J 9 8 7
♣ 7 6 5 3
♠ J 2
 K J 9 6 5 3
 10 5 4
♣ Q 8
South
♠ A 10 8 7 6 4
 A 8 7 4
 3 2
♣ J
South West North East
    1 ♣ 2
2 ♠ Pass 3 ♣ Pass
3 ♠ Pass 4 ♠ All pass

Q

The ACBL organizes simultaneous pairs every year to benefit various different activities, and last month they had a senior pairs, with duplicated hands all around the U.S., plus a book of commentary.

This deal tickled my fancy because I suspect that the play that would produce the best result possible for the East-West pairs on defense would escape most people, even with the sight of all four hands.

Let’s look at how the bidding might develop. When East pre-empts to two hearts over North’s one-club opener, South can double, then introduce spades, or bid and rebid spades, neither of which would be forcing, though the second route suggests a real invitation. However, both approaches should see South declare three spades.

Strangely, however, it is hard to defeat four spades after the South captures the heart queen lead. West must duck his diamond ace at trick two. If South wins the diamond king then runs the spade nine around to him, West must next take his diamond ace and shift to a club.

Now if declarer cashes both top clubs and leads a third, East ruffs in with the spade jack and West will be able to avoid any end-play easily enough. But if South instead ruffs the second club in hand and cashes the spade ace, West must unblock in trumps to avoid the throw-in! If he doesn’t, he will be forced to win the third spade and lead a minor, after which dummy’s winners will let declarer discard his heart losers.


In a game-forcing auction, every partnership must agree whether a jump to four spades here is minimum or indicates fitting cards in spades and diamonds; both treatments are playable, of course. In either event, a jump to four hearts by you should be shortage. If it shows extras, the hand might not be worth the call, but my instincts are that you should make it even with a minimum hand here.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ K Q 3
 Q
 A J 9 8 7
♣ 7 6 5 3
South West North East
    1 ♠ Pass
2 Pass 2 ♠ Pass
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, May 11th, 2018

Does the end justify the means? That is possible. But what will justify the end? To that question, which historical thought leaves pending, rebellion replies: the means.

Albert Camus


N North
Both ♠ A K Q 9 8 7 4
 5
 5
♣ A J 9 2
West East
♠ J 10 5 3 2
 8 3 2
 9 6 4
♣ K 4
♠ 6
 Q J 9 7 6
 A 10
♣ Q 8 7 6 3
South
♠ —
 A K 10 4
 K Q J 8 7 3 2
♣ 10 5
South West North East
    1 ♠ Pass
2 Pass 3 ♠ Pass
4 Pass 5 ♣ Pass
6 All pass    

♣K

When I saw this deal reported from Honors Bridge Club in New York, it was written up with the heading of “The Curse of Scotland?” It came up in December 2017, and it was a hand where East-West were robbed of a chance for brilliancy — all because of the diamond nine.

Judy Weisman sat West, and she started the defense on the right lines when she led the club king, an inspired shot against the slam, because it forced declarer to take his discards at once. (If declarer had had a singleton spade, he would have been forced to cut his own communications.)

Declarer won the club ace and played two top spades, pitching a club on the first. Put yourself in East’s shoes and plan the defense. Lipkin found the defense that would set the hand no matter which three diamonds his partner had. He ruffed with the ace (an unnatural play in my opinion) to return a diamond; that killed declarer’s chances since, whatever he did, he was left with a heart loser.

As the cards lay, Lipkin could have ruffed with the diamond 10 — but only because his partner had the diamond nine (the Curse of Scotland). For example, switch the nine and eight of trumps, and declarer would over-ruff the diamond 10 with the jack, then play the heart ace and ruff a heart. He could now lead a spade and maneuver to draw trumps without West being able to promote a trump.


While your hand might not be worth a call of two hearts, you expect the opponents to bounce to at least the three-level in spades, and you therefore need to get your hand off your chest at your first turn. Bid hearts, then raise clubs, which will at least get the basic nature of your hand across to your partner at the cost of a mild overbid.

BID WITH THE ACES

♠ 6
 Q J 9 7 6
 A 10
♣ Q 8 7 6 3
South West North East
    1 ♣ 1 ♠
?      

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog.
Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2018. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].