September 5th, 2011 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Monday, August 22nd, 2011 
| Vulnerable: Both
Dealer: South |
North
♠ Q 9 4
♥ A J 6
♦ 3
♣ K Q J 8 7 2 |
|
| West
♠ K 10
♥ 5 4 2
♦ J 10 8 7 4
♣ 3 |
 |
East
♠ 7 5 2
♥ K 8
♦ Q 9 6 5
♣ A 9 6 5 |
| |
South
♠ A J 8
♥ Q 10 9 7 3
♦ A K 2
♣ 10 4 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 ♥ |
Pass |
2 ♣ |
Pass |
| 2 NT |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
All pass |
Opening Lead: Club three
“The reticent volcano keeps
His never slumbering plan;
Confided are his projects pink
To no precarious man.”
— Emily Dickinson
If you need four tricks to defeat a contract but can see only three, it may be vital to set up the fourth, even before securing the second.
Against four hearts, West led the club three to East’s ace. In spite of declarer’s attempt to muddy the waters by dropping the club 10, East knew that his partner’s lead was a singleton. The four was the missing spot-card, and West would have led his top card had he held a doubleton.
East returned a club and his partner duly scored a ruff, but apart from the king of trumps, that was the end of the defense, as South’s losers in spades and diamonds could later be discarded on dummy’s clubs.
Could the defense have done better? Yes. The club ruff can wait, as East knows that he will come in again with the heart king to deliver it. On the bidding, West is marked with a high card. If that card is the spade king, it needs to be speedily set up as a winner before South’s losing spades disappear. A spade return at trick two will set the contact since East will score his trump king in due course and administer the club ruff.
East knows that declarer has a completely balanced hand with five hearts, so there is no way for declarer to dispose of his club on dummy’s spades. Moreover, even if declarer has great diamonds, the clubs in dummy will not all evaporate.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
K 8 7 5 |
| ♥ |
K 3 |
| ♦ |
Q 9 6 |
| ♣ |
J 6 3 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
1 ♥ |
Pass |
2 ♦ |
| Pass |
2 ♥ |
Pass |
2 ♠ |
| Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
3 NT |
| All pass |
|
|
|
ANSWER: Although you need less from your partner in spades than in clubs to set up a suit for your side, declarer’s bidding suggests he is more worried about clubs. So perhaps a low club is best. However, if you suspect East of being a trickster, maybe the spade lead might be better, since East could be trying to fake club weakness.
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].
September 4th, 2011 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, August 21st, 2011
| Dear Mr Wolff:
When the opponents open a weak two-bid in a major and partner overcalls two no-trump, what responses do you recommend? Are regular systems on, so three clubs would be Stayman? What would it mean to transfer to their major, or to cuebid their major?
— Fired Up, Little Rock, Ark.
ANSWER: Simplest is to play “system on”: three clubs remains Stayman, and transferring to their suit shows both minors. An alternative is to play Stayman, and transferring to their suit is weak or strong in the other major, while bidding the other major directly is natural and invitational.
Dear Mr Wolff:
A couple of weeks ago I was defending against a four-spade contract. The dummy put down the cards with hearts in the position where trumps should have been. The lead was the diamond ace, a suit where dummy was void. The declarer asked dummy to ruff, and dummy ruffed it with a heart. What should be the ruling here?
— Mixed-Up Kid, Hamilton, Ontario
ANSWER: Dummy can’t disobey declarer’s instructions, so a spade must be substituted for the heart play. If this was not spotted till the next trick, it gets complicated — but if both opponents agree with my explanation, I think you should unravel the play to get equity restored.
Dear Mr Wolff:
You are dealer and vulnerable, holding SPADES A-9-8-7-2, HEARTS 10, DIAMONDS 10-2, CLUBS K-Q-8-6-4. Would you pass or open? If the latter, which suit would you bid? How would your answer change if not vulnerable in the third seat after two passes? And what if you were in fourth seat after three passes?
— Around the World, Hartford, Conn.
ANSWER: I’d pass in first or second seat (not because opening will fail to work out, but more to preserve partnership harmony). It’s not really an opening bid — though switch the spades and clubs and I might open. (If playing a strong club, I’d be inclined to open, though.) In third or fourth seat I’d open one spade at any vulnerability. I can see why one club might work (asking for a club lead), but in practice one spade is so much more pre-emptive.
| |
Dear Mr Wolff:
I was declarer in three no-trump. When I led a club, my RHO showed out, then subsequently followed with the club queen. A trick or two later we established this, and I asked her to restore the reneged card where it belonged. When the director came to the table, the offender explained what had happened and the director said “No penalty.” My RHO knew that by changing her earlier card, she would avoid the renege penalty. Was that ethical?
— Demanding Justice, Jackson, Tenn.
ANSWER: You learned – expensively — that the first thing you should always do as declarer, defender (or dummy!) is that when an infraction has been established, is to call the director. This does not come across as rude; it is his job, not yours, to enforce the rules. As to your opponent: I would not behave like that myself. I want to be able to face myself in the morning.
Dear Mr Wolff:
When my LHO opens one club, my partner overcalls one heart, and the next hand responds one spade, how should my two potential cue-bids by me (two clubs and two spades) be differentiated?
— Suzie Cue, Levittown, Pa.
ANSWER: With a choice of cue-bids, the higher one tends to be a better hand. Here, the lower cue-bid might just be a sound raise to the two-level (say9-11), while a two-spade call shows a sound raise to three hearts. For the record: many people give up a natural two-no-trump bid in competition to distinguish between three- and four-card support.
|
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at [email protected]. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2011.
September 3rd, 2011 ~ admin ~ 1 Comment
| Vulnerable: North-South
Dealer: West |
North
♠ 5
♥ K J 7 5
♦ A 6 5 4
♣ A K 10 8 |
|
| West
♠ A Q J 8 7 2
♥ 9 4
♦ Q 10 7
♣ Q 3 |
|
East
♠ 6 3
♥ 10 6 2
♦ K 9 3 2
♣ J 9 7 6 |
| |
South
♠ K 10 9 4
♥ A Q 8 3
♦ J 8
♣ 5 4 2 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
1 ♠ |
Dbl. |
Pass |
| 3 ♥ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
All pass |
Opening Lead: Heart four
“There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.”
— Duke of Wellington
In the 2007 Invitation Lederer Memorial Trophy, held in London and sponsored by Bernard Teltscher and the Young Chelsea Bridge Club, Norman Selway, of the Young Chelsea Champions team, took the “Best-Played Hand” award.
A club or low diamond lead would have defeated Selway’s heart game, but West, naturally enough, chose the trump four, to the five, 10 and queen. Now there was no possibility of playing a crossruff to take seven tricks from the trump suit, so Selway started on the right track in an attempt to cut the defenders’ communications when he advanced a diamond from hand. He chose the jack, and when West covered with the queen, correctly allowed it to hold. The trump return was won in dummy; then came the diamond ace and a diamond ruff. A club to the ace allowed North’s last diamond to be trumped, and a club to the king permitted the outstanding trump to be drawn. At that point declarer had eight of the first nine tricks.
Next came a spade to the 10, and West’s jack was the second trick for the defense. Selway’s final move was his refusal to ruff West’s spade ace, discarding a club loser. West was now endplayed into giving declarer access to his orphaned spade king in hand, and dummy’s last trump was Selway’s 10th trick.
Of all the declarers to reach four hearts, Selway was the only one to make it.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
K 10 9 4 |
| ♥ |
A Q 8 3 |
| ♦ |
J 8 |
| ♣ |
5 4 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
1 ♣ |
Pass |
| 1 ♥ |
1 ♠ |
Pass |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: It would be nice if you could double, fold up your cards, and end the auction. Alas, a double here would show cards — more takeout than penalties. On that basis, maybe your best bet is to give up on the penalty and simply bid one no-trump, which gets your side into a sensible contract.
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].
September 2nd, 2011 ~ admin ~ 4 Comments
| Vulnerable: Both
Dealer: North |
North
♠ K J 8 5
♥ 2
♦ A Q J 10 7 6 5 4
♣ — |
|
| West
♠ 6
♥ K Q 10 8 4 3
♦ 9 8
♣ A J 3 2 |
|
East
♠ 10 4 3 2
♥ A J 7
♦ K 3
♣ K Q 7 6 |
| |
South
♠ A Q 9 7
♥ 9 6 5
♦ 2
♣ 10 9 8 5 4 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
1 ♦ |
Dbl. |
| 1 ♠ |
4 ♥ |
4 ♠ |
Pass |
| Pass |
5 ♥ |
5 ♠ |
Dbl. |
| All pass |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: Heart king
“Before you trust a man, eat a peck of salt with him.”
— Anonymous
As Eddie Kantar says (in “Kantar on Kontract”): “It’s not every partner who will trust you enough to put down in dummy an eight-card side suit headed by 100 honors.” If you have one of these partners, you’d better know how to handle your 4-4 trump fits.
Against five spades the defenders led and continued hearts. South ruffed in dummy and continued with the diamond ace, then the queen, ruffing out the king.
At this point both North and South each have three trumps and East has four. If declarer plays the spade ace, then a spade to dummy’s jack, he will take exactly two more tricks. When a diamond is led from dummy, East trumps, and the most South can do is take each of his trumps separately. Down four!
Far better is to cross to the spade jack and play a high diamond, intending to discard if East doesn’t ruff. Say East ruffs: South overruffs with the ace and overtakes the spade queen with dummy’s king. When South runs the winning diamonds, East can score no more than his spade 10. Contract made.
South’s line works even when West has a second spade, when he would trump the third round of diamonds and play a club, forcing dummy to ruff. Dummy would now have the blank spade king, South the ace-queen, and East the 10-4. But declarer simply runs the diamonds, and whenever East trumps in, South overtrumps with the ace, enters dummy with the spade king, and takes the balance.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
6 |
| ♥ |
K Q 10 8 4 3 |
| ♦ |
9 8 |
| ♣ |
A J 3 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
1 ♦ |
1 ♠ |
| 2 ♥ |
2 ♠ |
Pass |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: Your partner’s pass indicates a minimum balanced hand without much heart support, suggesting you can reopen with a double for takeout, or compete either to three clubs or three hearts. All three calls make sense, but bidding three hearts gets you closest to your most likely game, so it would be my choice.
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].
September 1st, 2011 ~ admin ~ 4 Comments
| Vulnerable: North-South
Dealer: South |
North
♠ 5 3
♥ K 9 4
♦ J 6 5 3 2
♣ A 7 3 |
|
| West
♠ K Q J 9 6 4
♥ 10 5
♦ Q 4
♣ J 10 5 |
|
East
♠ 10 8
♥ J 8 3
♦ K 10 9 7
♣ Q 8 6 4 |
| |
South
♠ A 7 2
♥ A Q 7 6 2
♦ A 8
♣ K 9 2 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 ♥ |
1 ♠ |
2 ♥ |
Pass |
| 4 ♥ |
All pass |
|
|
Opening Lead: Spade king
“I am the spirit of the morning sea;
I am the awakening and the glad surprise;
I fill the skies
With laughter and with light.”
— Richard Gilder
At the Dyspeptics Club the members agree on very little. But three of today’s four players are convinced that South not only holds better cards than he deserves, but also generally makes less of them than he should.
However, in today’s deal South found a play that few would have managed — though whether he deserved to make his game, I shall let you decide.
The spade king was led against four hearts; South held off the first round and won the second. Now South could see that he needed either a ruff in dummy or the establishment of a long diamond. So he led out ace and another diamond, and West won and played a third top spade.
Had declarer ruffed in dummy, East would have overruffed and returned a club to leave South with an inevitable loser. But much to North’s surprise, South found the correct play: he discarded a club from dummy on West’s spade jack. Mind you, he rather spoiled the effect by then trying to ruff the spade in hand!
North wisely asked him if he had any spades left, so South corrected his revoke without penalty and made his game. He then added insult to injury by apologizing to his partner for failing to ruff the spade in dummy and make an overtrick!
(Incidentally, the best plan for South at trick three would have been to lead the third spade himself and throw one of dummy’s clubs away; this involves the least risk of all.)
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
A 7 2 |
| ♥ |
A Q 7 6 2 |
| ♦ |
A 8 |
| ♣ |
K 9 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
1 ♣ |
1 ♦ |
| 1 ♥ |
Pass |
1 NT |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: Even though your partner has shown a minimum hand, a slam in clubs (or hearts) is still not out of the picture. Cuebid two diamonds and plan to raise to three clubs at your next turn, just in case partner has extra club length in a minimum hand. Note that in a competitive auction like this, your partner’s hand might not be balanced.
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].
August 31st, 2011 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
| Vulnerable: Both
Dealer: East |
North
♠ K 8 5 3
♥ J 10 9 6
♦ A J 9
♣ 10 7 |
|
| West
♠ A 6 2
♥ Q 2
♦ K 7 4
♣ K J 9 8 4 |
|
East
♠ Q 10 9 7
♥ 7 5 4
♦ 8 6 3 2
♣ 5 2 |
| |
South
♠ J 4
♥ A K 8 3
♦ Q 10 5
♣ A Q 6 3 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
|
Pass |
| 1 NT |
Pass |
2 ♣ |
Pass |
| 2 ♥ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
All pass |
Opening Lead: Diamond four
“I decline to buy repentance at the cost of ten thousand drachmas.”
— Demosthenes
I do not want the readers of this column to think I publish deals that involve me just to show myself in a good light. On the contrary, I am aware that a neutral observer would probably find more howlers than brilliancies if they were to scrutinize the record carefully. As Bob Hamman said: “The best play lousy, the rest worse.”
At the Forbo tournament a decade ago there was an introductory four-way international match. When U.S.A. played Italy, the two teams failed to land a blow in the first eight boards — but then came the deluge in favor of Italy, and I started the flood.
Here I opened a strong no-trump and declared four hearts after a Stayman inquiry. Receiving a diamond lead, I won the jack and made what I thought was the natural play when I ran the heart jack at trick two. When Alfredo Versace won this and returned a heart, I took this in the dummy and found that I could no longer ruff two clubs in dummy because of the 5-2 club split, and so had to go down.
By contrast, Norberto Bocchi for Italy accurately took a club finesse at trick two and won the diamond return to play the club ace, then ruff a club high. When East discarded on this trick, Bocchi crossed back to hand in trumps to ruff a second club, then played off the second top heart to drop the queen offside. With the spade ace his only other loser, he made an overtrick for a gain of 13 IMPs.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
Q 10 9 7 |
| ♥ |
7 5 4 |
| ♦ |
8 6 3 2 |
| ♣ |
5 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
1 ♣ |
Dbl. |
1 ♦ |
| Pass |
1 ♥ |
Dbl. |
2 ♣ |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: With the opponents coming to a stop in two clubs, you have just enough to compete to two spades. Because you know your partner was eager for you to compete, your four-card spade suit should entitle you to bid now. That you did not bid one spade at your first turn limits you to at most a five-count.
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].
August 30th, 2011 ~ admin ~ 10 Comments
| Vulnerable: North-South
Dealer: West |
North
♠ K 5 2
♥ 9 6 4
♦ K Q 5 3
♣ 10 6 4 |
|
| West
♠ Q 7 6 3
♥ K Q 5
♦ 10
♣ A J 8 7 3 |
|
East
♠ J 9 8 4
♥ 10 7 3
♦ 9 2
♣ K 9 5 2 |
| |
South
♠ A 10
♥ A J 8 2
♦ A J 8 7 6 4
♣ Q |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
Pass |
Pass |
Pass |
| 1 ♦ |
2 ♣ |
2 ♦ |
3 ♣ |
| 3 ♥ |
Pass |
3 ♠ |
Pass |
| 5 ♦ |
All pass |
|
|
Opening Lead: Club ace
“One hundred and ninety two (of the species of apes) are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens.”
— Desmond Morris
One of the idioms you occasionally hear at the bridge table is “stripping a hand.” This refers to a process of eliminating some of the suits from a hand to reduce the options for a defender when he gets the lead. It may sound complex, but in today’s deal, Roselyn Teukolsky demonstrated a route to success by employing the technique perfectly.
Incidentally, note North’s three-spade bid, suggesting spade values and a better-than-minimum hand.
Against five diamonds West elected to lead the club ace — a small slip that allowed Teukolsky to make the contract by force, despite the unfavorable heart distribution. She ruffed the club continuation, played off three rounds of spades, ruffing the third, then crossed to a top trump in dummy to eliminate the clubs. At this point she finally drew the last trump, ending up in dummy. Now she led the heart nine, covered by East with the 10. Roselyn put on the jack, leaving West on play. A heart return would give up the defense’s trick there, and either black suit would allow declarer to throw a heart from dummy and crossruff the rest of the tricks.
Notice that on a passive spade opening lead, declarer will probably take the spade ace and lead the club queen from hand. If East is allowed to take this trick and play a heart through declarer, all the tension of the ending is broken up.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
K 5 2 |
| ♥ |
9 6 4 |
| ♦ |
K Q 5 3 |
| ♣ |
10 6 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
2 ♣ |
Pass |
| 2 ♦ |
Pass |
2 ♥ |
Pass |
| 3 ♥ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: Although your values had suggested slam might have been in the offing, now, after the sign-off, passing discretely is best since you have no aces and no trump honors. If your partner cannot make a slam-try, you should respect his judgment.
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].
August 29th, 2011 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Monday, August 15th, 2011
| Vulnerable: Neither
Dealer: South |
North
♠ A J 3
♥ 7 5 2
♦ K 7 6 3
♣ J 9 4 |
|
| West
♠ K Q 9 5 2
♥ Q 9 3
♦ Q J 10
♣ 5 2 |
|
East
♠ 10 8 6 4
♥ 8 4
♦ A 9 5 4
♣ Q 8 7 |
| |
South
♠ 7
♥ A K J 10 6
♦ 8 2
♣ A K 10 6 3 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 ♥ |
1 ♠ |
1 NT |
2 ♠ |
| 3 ♣ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
All pass |
Opening Lead: Spade king
“Put all your eggs in one basket and — watch that basket.”
— Mark Twain
Two chances are not always better than one, but in general you would like to take your chances in a contract in correct order, rather than trying to put all your eggs in one basket.
See if you can spot the relevance of that adage when planning the play in four hearts on the lead of the spade king. In essence, the contract is highly likely to make if the diamond ace is well placed for South. But if it isn’t, declarer needs a good break in hearts and clubs, and for one of the finesses in those suits to work. As the cards lie, if declarer takes the heart finesse first, he will lose a club later. (Even though the club finesse is onside, declarer will no longer have an entry to the board to take it.) Compare what happens if declarer tries for two chances to make his game. Say that at trick two, declarer runs the club nine from dummy. If the finesse loses, South can cash the heart ace to guard against a singleton heart queen, then re-enter dummy with the club jack to try the heart finesse.
Today, the club nine would hold the trick, so declarer next plays a heart to the 10. West wins the queen and shifts to diamonds. Declarer ruffs the third diamond and cashes the heart ace. Next he plays the club ace, in case the same hand has one club and two hearts. When clubs split, he simply draws trump and claims the rest.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
J 10 9 5 2 |
| ♥ |
J 5 |
| ♦ |
Q 10 3 |
| ♣ |
8 7 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
1 ♣ |
Pass |
1 ♥ |
| Pass |
3 ♥ |
Pass |
3 ♠ |
| Pass |
4 ♣ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
| All pass |
|
|
|
ANSWER: The opponents have implied slam interest, but have stopped low because they have no diamond control. If you are going to lead a diamond, leading the queen gives you more chances of cashing three diamond tricks on the go. (Imagine partner with three or four diamonds to the A-J, for example.) I admit that the results might well make you look foolish!
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].
August 28th, 2011 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, August 14th, 2011
| Dear Mr Wolff:
Say you open one diamond and the next hand overcalls one spade. Partner doubles, and RHO raises to two spades. What would jumps by you to four clubs or even five clubs be? What jumps are available to agree hearts?
— Frogger, Troy, N.Y.
ANSWER: In the given auction, no suit has been agreed, so both club calls are natural. Four clubs sounds natural and forcing to me. (Some might argue strong but not forcing.) A five-club bid might be 6-6 without many extras in high cards. By contrast, a jump to four spades seems clearly — to me — to be a cuebid for hearts, probably with short spades.
Dear Mr Wolff:
When your RHO intervenes with a specific two-suiter over your partner’s opening call, what respnses do you have? What if he shows a two-suiter, but only specifies the major, together with an unspecified minor?
— Returning the Favor, Bay City, Mich.
ANSWER: If only one suit is specified, co-opt the cuebid of that suit to show a high-card limit raise for partner, with simple raises being weaker than that. If both suits are specified, one cuebid should be the limit-raise, the other should show a good hand with the fourth suit. Meanwhile, bids of the fourth suit are limited to invitational values.
Dear Mr Wolff:
Are you in favor of Flannery as opposed to a weak two-diamond opening bid? I don’t see either coming up more than twice a night — even if the weak hand is slightly more common. Secondly, is Flannery always used as an opening bid, or can it be a response as well? If my partner opens one club, would a jump to two diamonds be Flannery?
— Flannery Flummery, Janesville, Wis.
ANSWER: I like Flannery. I enjoy the fact that a one-spade response to one heart shows five, and a one-no-trump response may contain four spades. But the weak two-diamond opening is much more popular, in general; it does come up more often than Flannery, I think. Incidentally, a two-diamond response to one club should not be played as both majors, but as diamonds, weak or strong — depending on taste.
| |
Dear Mr Wolff:
Holding SPADES K-7-4, HEARTS Q-J, DIAMONDS A-K-9-5-3, CLUBS K-3-2, my partner responded two clubs, game-forcing to my one-diamond opener. We ended up in the par spot of three no-trump, but was my partner’s bid correct? We do not play inverted minor raises (we limit the strength of the raise to two diamonds to 10-12, while three diamonds would show 6-9), so he was too strong for either action.
— Minor Fudging, Newport News, Va.
ANSWER: The French play this way (no inverted minors, so they lie in the other minor with a forcing raise). It seems to work for them, though it would not be my choice. And yes, your partner told the least lie here. Making your inverted minors forcing for one round would solve the problem, of course.
Dear Mr Wolff:
In response to an opening strong no-trump, is a bid of three clubs acceptable when you hold SPADES 9-8, HEARTS —, DIAMONDS A-K-4-2, CLUBS J-10-7-6-4-3-2? Would you consider bidding five clubs?
— Gone Clubbing, Muncie, Ind.
ANSWER: There is no easy answer here. A forcing club bid might work (or a call to show both minors short in hearts — some use jumps in the majors over the no-trump opening for those hands). That would be better with a spade honor, though, because spades could be the weak suit if your partner declares no-trump. Maybe just bidding clubs rates to work out best, after all, but I prefer three clubs instead of the jump to game.
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If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at [email protected]. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2011.
August 27th, 2011 ~ admin ~ 4 Comments
| Vulnerable: East-West
Dealer: East |
North
♠ Q 10 8 4 3 2
♥ 9 2
♦ K J 4 3
♣ Q |
|
| West
♠ A 9 7 6
♥ 10 6
♦ 10 9 8 5
♣ 9 7 2 |
|
East
♠ K
♥ Q 7 4
♦ A Q
♣ K J 10 8 6 4 3 |
| |
South
♠ J 5
♥ A K J 8 5 3
♦ 7 6 2
♣ A 5 |
|
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
|
|
1 ♣ |
| 1 ♥ |
Pass |
1 ♠ |
3 ♣ |
| 3 ♥ |
4 ♣ |
4 ♥ |
All pass |
Opening Lead: Club two
“Beware, I say, the failure and the shame
Of losing that for which you now aspire
So blindly, and of hazarding entire
The gift that I was bringing when I came.”
— Edwin Arlington Robinson
Today’s deal saw a missed opportunity of sorts. Do you think that South might have found the winning line in his delicate contract?
Having climbed to the precarious heights of four hearts, declarer won the club lead in his hand with the ace, ruffed a club, then took a trump finesse. He drew all the trumps, then ducked a spade to East, ruffed the club return, and played a second spade. West won the trick and shifted to a diamond, and declarer could not avoid losing at least two further diamond tricks when the diamond queen was offside.
This was a perfectly reasonable line of play — in a sense. But as the cards lie, the contract could have been made. The auction strongly suggests that East has seven clubs, since he had jumped to the three-level when vulnerable, facing a passing partner. Once East turns up with three trumps, it must surely be right to go after diamonds before spades. And best is to duck a diamond completely, then repeat the process if the first diamond play loses to anything but the ace, playing East for a bare spade honor plus the doubleton diamond ace, or the bare diamond ace.
Note that even if East has (say) the doubleton diamond A-9, losing the first diamond cheaply will not be fatal. East can unblock his spade honor and play a club, but you ruff and duck a second diamond, later finessing in diamonds to pitch your spade loser.
BID WITH THE ACES
South holds:
| ♠ |
A 9 7 6 |
| ♥ |
10 6 |
| ♦ |
10 9 8 5 |
| ♣ |
9 7 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
|
1 ♣ |
Dbl. |
1 ♥ |
| Pass |
Pass |
Dbl. |
Pass |
| 1 ♠ |
Pass |
2 ♠ |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
ANSWER: Although you appear to be very weak, bear in mind that after your first two calls, your partner already knew that and still invited game. Without wanting to appear to be too much of a mastermind, I think this hand is very close to a try for game. If so, a bid of three diamonds would be natural and suggest this sort of hand. However, a lot depends on how much you trust your partner.
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].
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