The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, September 24th, 2011

October 8th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  6 Comments 

Dealer: South Vul: Both	North ♠ Q 7 6 ♥ Q 10 7 6 5 ♦ K J 2 ♣ K 5
West ♠ K J 9 8 3 ♥ J 4 3 ♦ A 9 7 ♣ Q 9		East ♠ 10 5 ♥ A 9 2 ♦ 8 6 5 ♣ J 8 7 4 3
	South ♠ A 4 2 ♥ K 8 ♦ Q 10 4 3 ♣ A 10 6 2

 

South	West	North	East
1 ♦	1 ♠	2 ♥	Pass
2 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: Spade 8

“Obtruding false rules pranked in reason’s garb.”

— John Milton

Rules are made to be broken, they say, and both tables missed their chance to break the textbook rules in the following deal, when Norway took on Finland in the Junior European Championships.

Both Souths ended up in three no-trump on the lead of the spade eight. In a fairly desperate situation, they started well enough by winning dummy’s spade queen and guessing to play a heart to the king. Then the plays diverged.

The Norwegian declarer turned his attention to diamonds, dislodging West’s entry, and now he could duck a spade and kill the suit. West shifted rather desperately to clubs, but declarer finished up with 11 tricks when he subsequently brought the hearts in as well.

The Finnish declarer sneaked the diamond 10 through at trick three and then went back to hearts. He guessed that suit correctly for nine tricks.

Both declarers must have thought they had done well — and indeed they had. But both Easts had mechanically followed the normal rules without giving the matter proper thought — second hand low is all very well, up to a point. If either defender had risen with the heart ace at trick two to play a spade through, the contract would have had no play. And why duck the first heart, since your heart nine means that declarer cannot misguess the suit?

Rising with the ace would also have been right had West’s honor trick been the heart king, of course, since it would again have preserved his entry.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, September 23rd, 2011

October 7th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, September 23rd, 2011 

Dealer: West Vul: Neither	North ♠ Q 10 ♥ K Q ♦ A J 10 7 6 4 ♣ 10 9 2
West ♠ 9 3 ♥ A J 5 3 2 ♦ 9 3 ♣ Q J 7 5		East ♠ A 8 7 4 ♥ 9 6 ♦ Q 8 ♣ A 8 6 4 3
	South ♠ K J 6 5 2 ♥ 10 8 7 4 ♦ K 5 2 ♣ K

 

South	West	North	East
	Pass	1 ♦	Pass
1 ♠	2 ♥	Pass	3 ♥
Dbl.	Pass	3 ♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: Club Queen

“Once I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and traditions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Over the years, the Junior European Championships have formed a showground of the players who are likely to supplant their elders in the future. All four players in today’s deal have indeed gone on to represent their respective countries at the open level.

Today’s deal features a play known as the dentist’s coup. It arose in a match between the Hungarians and the Irish. The Irish North South had made three diamonds comfortably enough, but in the other room the Hungarians competed to three spades over East’s three-heart bid. The best defense is a low club lead, but Tommy Garvey for Ireland naturally led the club queen to East’s ace. A second club came back, on which declarer, Tamas Szalka, threw a heart.

West took the jack, cashed the heart ace, and returned another heart. Now declarer cashed dummy’s club 10 to throw his last heart, then played the spade queen, followed by the spade 10, both ducked by John Carroll. This was nice defense; if the defenders take the trump ace early, declarer has no further problems with the timing of the hand.

Now came the dentist’s coup: if declarer carelessly crosses to hand with the diamond king to play a third trump, East wins and returns a diamond, locking him in dummy to concede a diamond ruff. Szalka carefully played the diamond ace and a second diamond to his king before playing the third round of trumps, leaving the defenders helpless.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

October 6th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  6 Comments 

Dealer: South Vul: North-South	North ♠ Q 9 5 ♥ Q J 6 2 ♦ K 10 8 4 ♣ K 2
West ♠ 7 ♥ K 10 8 ♦ A 7 6 2 ♣ A 9 7 6 4		East ♠ 8 3 2 ♥ A 9 5 ♦ Q 5 ♣ Q J 10 8 3
	South ♠ A K J 10 6 4 ♥ 7 4 3 ♦ J 9 3 ♣ 5

 

South	West	North	East
2 ♠	Pass	3 ♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: Heart 8

“The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Junior World Championships has zonal tournaments all over the world to determine the qualifiers for this event. When Poland took on Sweden in a Junior European Championships, the Polish declarer demonstrated a proper understanding of one of the more complex areas of the game — namely, that of the theory of restricted choice.

In one room the Swedes ended up three down in an optimistic four-spade contract when declarer misguessed diamonds early and ran into a ruff. But Bartosz Chmurski, who is now an international player on Poland’s open team, reached the more decorous contract of three spades. The lead was a low heart to East’s ace, a club back to West’s ace, and a low diamond switch. It now seems as if declarer has a straight guess in diamonds, but Chmurski got it right when he hopped up with dummy’s king to make his contract.

I think he made the right theoretical play too; the reason was that he inferred that West found an awkward lead from K-x-x in hearts at trick one. (Because the defenders did not try to take a ruff, the suit must surely be 3-3.)

Since West might have preferred to lead a diamond rather than a heart had he held the diamond queen, but was relatively unlikely to find an opening diamond lead away from the ace, this made it more likely that the diamond ace was in West’s hand.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

October 5th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 

Dealer: East Vul: Neither	North ♠ Q 6 4 ♥ A K 10 7 5 ♦ A ♣ 10 8 4 3
West ♠ 10 8 2 ♥ Q 8 2 ♦ K J 10 6 4 ♣ 9 7		East ♠ K 9 7 3 ♥ J 9 6 ♦ 8 3 ♣ A Q J 6
	South ♠ A J 5 ♥ 4 3 ♦ Q 9 7 5 2 ♣ K 5 2

 

South	West	North	East
			Pass
Pass	2 ♦	2 ♥	Pass
3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: Spade 8

“Oh mighty love! Man is one world, and hath

— George Herbert

Every two years the World Junior Pairs is held in Europe. Today’s deal from this event 15 years ago features Boye Brogeland, now generally regarded as one of the world’s top players.

After a typically aggressive junior-style pre-empt by West, North-South were goaded into three no-trump, when they would probably have stopped in two hearts if left to their own devices.

Brogeland would have been very poorly placed on a diamond lead, but who leads his own suit nowadays? The spade eight traveled around to the jack, and Boye led a heart to dummy’s 10 and East’s jack. Back came the club queen, and when it held the trick, this was the defense’s last chance to play a diamond through. Alas for the defenders, East cleared the clubs by leading ace and another club, and now an avalanche of hearts finished the defense off. In the four-card ending, East had to keep one club and two spades, and thus only one diamond, so he was squeezed out of his second diamond, which was the only suit in which the defense had any communications.

Brogeland now cashed the diamond ace and exited with a club, throwing East on lead for a spade play away from the king for declarer’s ninth trick. (Notice that Brogeland cannot make the contract if he takes the first club. The same squeeze does not work if East has retained two club guards, since he can pitch a club and keep both his diamonds in the ending.)

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

October 4th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  15 Comments 

Dealer: South Vul: Both	North ♠ Q ♥ J 7 4 ♦ K Q J 7 3 2 ♣ K 6 5
West ♠ K 7 5 ♥ 10 9 5 ♦ A 8 6 4 ♣ 9 7 3		East ♠ J 9 6 4 ♥ A Q 6 3 ♦ 10 ♣ 10 8 4 2
	South ♠ A 10 8 3 2 ♥ K 8 2 ♦ 9 5 ♣ A Q J

 

South	West	North	East
1 ♠	Pass	2 ♦	Pass
2 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: Heart 10

“Little drops of water

— Julia Carney

Over the last two decades the junior camps have been one of the best ways for young players to learn the game and to meet other like-minded juniors. Today’s deal was played by Eugene Hung at an early U.S. junior camp.

Against three no-trump Hung received the lead of the heart 10 (top of a sequence or from J-10 with a higher nontouching honor) and decided to duck the trick in both hands, in case the lead was from a doubleton.

Declarer won the second heart, West having led the heart nine covered by the jack and queen. He could now infer that East was likely to have begun with four hearts. West’s lead from shortage, and not from a long club suit, suggested that it was West, if anyone, who might be long in diamonds.

South therefore played the diamond nine from hand to dummy’s jack. When East’s 10 appeared, declarer crossed back to hand in clubs and led a second diamond, but now had to guess what to play from dummy. In a sense this play is not so much about the percentages but more about your guess as to how easy East would find it to play the diamond 10 on the first round of the suit from A-10-8 or 10-8. If you deem him capable of such a play, then maybe you should play for the drop, but Eugene took the finesse of the diamond seven and was rewarded with a game swing.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Monday, September 19th, 2011

October 3rd, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

Dealer: South Vul: North-South	North ♠ 9 ♥ Q J 8 7 ♦ K 10 4 ♣ Q J 9 8 6
West ♠ J 10 8 4 2 ♥ 6 5 ♦ J 6 ♣ A 7 4 3		East ♠ A 7 5 ♥ 10 9 3 2 ♦ A Q 9 3 2 ♣ 2
	South ♠ K Q 6 3 ♥ A K 4 ♦ 8 7 5 ♣ K 10 5

 

South	West	North	East
1 NT	Pass	2 ♣	Pass
2 ♠	Pass	2 NT	Pass
3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: Spade Jack

“Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly,

— Sir John Davies

This week’s deals are all from relatively recent junior championships, showcasing the talents of players from all around the world. The 3rd World University Bridge Championships took place in Tianjin, China, and 27 teams from 22 countries participated. Today’s deal is from the Round Robin match between China A and Sweden. China A (the eventual tournament winners) had double home advantage, as five of its six players attended Tianjin Normal University.

Against South’s delicate three-no-trump game, Liu for the Chinese squad led the spade jack, which promised no higher honor, and East, Jin, won with the ace, then paused to consider.

She could see the danger posed by the club suit in dummy, and appreciated that if South held both top club honors, that added up to seven black-suit tricks. Declarer had to have a top heart for his opening bid, and even if West came on lead and switched to a diamond, dummy’s 10 would halt the run of that suit.

Jin worked out that the only chance for the defense lay with West holding a club honor, plus at least two diamonds. So she returned a low diamond, to the jack and king, and when East came on lead with a club, the diamond return saw the contract down.

The key to the defense was that one diamond trick was unlikely to make the difference between success and failure for declarer, while the defenders needed to get diamonds going to have any chance to set the game.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, September 18th, 2011

October 2nd, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, September 18th, 2011 

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at [email protected]. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2011.

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, September 17th, 2011

October 1st, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

Dealer: West Vul: Both	North ♠ A 8 7 3 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ J 7 6 3 ♣ A 9
West ♠ K Q 6 ♥ A K 10 ♦ 10 8 2 ♣ 10 5 3 2		East ♠ 10 4 ♥ J 9 5 4 2 ♦ 9 5 4 ♣ 8 6 4
	South ♠ J 9 5 2 ♥ Q 6 ♦ A K Q ♣ K Q J 7

 

South	West	North	East
	1 NT*	Pass	2 ♦
Dbl.**	2 ♥	Dbl.	Pass
2 ♠	Pass	3 ♠	Pass
4 ♠	All Pass

*12-14 balanced

**15 HCP or more

Opening Lead: Heart King

“Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.”

— Blaise Pascal

Declarer took all available inferences from the bidding to bring home his four-spade contract, in spite of the tenuous trump holding. West cashed the top two hearts, then continued with the 10, which South ruffed. Declarer could safely assume that West had both the spade king and queen, but as there was no hope for the game if West also held the 10, he placed this card with East.

Declarer entered dummy with the club ace to play a spade to the nine, which drew the queen from West. So far, so good. A diamond was returned — and now came the moment of truth.

Had West started with the bare K-Q of spades? If that were the case, a low spade from hand would net the contract. Or had he begun with K-Q-x in spades? Then the right card to play next would be the jack to smother East’s spade 10.

South assembled the clues. West, had opened one no-trump vulnerable on a 12-count. Conceivably he might not have done so with bare spade honors. Equally, had he held five diamonds, might he have switched to diamonds at trick three, in the hope that East held a singleton and could be given a ruff? Also, the fact that East had five hearts and West only three meant that any side-suit length rated to be with West, not East.

Concluding that West was likelier to have started with three spades, declarer continued with the spade jack — with gratifying results.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, September 16th, 2011

September 30th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  4 Comments 

Dealer: East Vul: Both	North ♠ 10 9 6 5 ♥ K 2 ♦ A K Q 5 3 ♣ 9 7
West ♠ A 8 4 3 ♥ 10 8 ♦ J 6 4 2 ♣ J 6 3		East ♠ K Q 2 ♥ A J 7 5 ♦ 10 8 7 ♣ 8 5 4
	South ♠ J 7 ♥ Q 9 6 4 3 ♦ 9 ♣ A K Q 10 2

 

South	West	North	East
			Pass
1 ♥	Pass	2 ♦	Pass
3 ♣	Pass	3 ♠	Pass
3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: Spade 3

“It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.”

— Viscount Morley

Do you enjoy measuring your performance against that of the world’s experts? If so, take the East seat and cover up the South and West hands. You will be defending against three no-trump.

Partner leads the spade three (fourth-highest leads) and your queen holds. Where do you go for honey? It can do no harm to cash the spade king, for if South had held the ace, he would have played it on your queen, trying to guarantee a second trick in the suit for his side. Your concern is the whereabouts of the spade jack. If your partner has that card, life should be easy for the defense.

Irritatingly, South produces the jack under your king. South must have most of the outstanding honors, apart from the spade ace, for his bidding. How do you set up an extra trick for your side?

The bottom line is that nothing you do really matters if declarer has a doubleton diamond, but what if he has a singleton diamond? Maybe you can disrupt his communications.

So reasoned Italian World Champion Alfredo Versace, who returned a low diamond to the nine, jack and ace. See the effect of this. Declarer is forced to take dummy’s three diamond tricks before he is ready to do so — which would have been after he had set up a heart trick and not before. Now declarer could not come to nine tricks before the defenders came to five, the fifth being West’s diamond six.

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, September 15th, 2011

September 29th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, September 15th, 2011 

Dealer: South Vul: East-West	North ♠ K 10 7 5 3 ♥ J 6 3 ♦ 10 4 ♣ Q 5 3
West ♠ J 2 ♥ Q 10 7 5 2 ♦ 9 8 2 ♣ 10 9 8		East ♠ 9 8 4 ♥ 8 4 ♦ A J 6 5 ♣ A J 4 2
	South ♠ A Q 6 ♥ A K 9 ♦ K Q 7 3 ♣ K 7 6

 

South	West	North	East
2 NT	Pass	3 ♥	Pass
3 ♠	Pass	3 NT	Pass
4 ♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: Club 10

“Time is the feathered thing,

— Jasper Mayne

Sally Brock of England reported this deal, in which she had declared four spades rather than the somewhat easier three no-trump. Brock was not sure she would be buying a balanced hand opposite, but did know of the 5-3 spade fit.

Against four spades, West led the club 10. Brock won in hand and played the spade queen, then the ace, followed by a third trump to dummy. Next, she played a diamond to her king, then exited with a second diamond, which ran to East’s jack.

East now switched accurately to a heart. Brock won with the ace and ruffed a diamond, hoping the ace would fall. When it didn’t, she crossed to her heart king and played the diamond queen, discarding dummy’s heart jack. With nothing left but clubs now, East had to lead around to the club queen.

Subsequently, Brock noted that had she started drawing trumps with the spade ace first and the queen second, then when West’s jack appeared, she could have overtaken her queen with dummy’s king and played a diamond. Another trump to dummy would have allowed her to play a second diamond and come to 10 tricks more easily.

But Brock later considered what might have happened in this variation if West had started with a spade holding of J-9-8-2. Wouldn’t dropping the spade jack on the second round be a terrific falsecard, tempting declarer to overtake — and create a spade loser where none had existed before?

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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].