The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

April 19th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  5 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 ♦	1 ♥	2 ♣	3 ♥*
3 ♠	Pass	5 ♦	All pass

*Pre-emptive

Opening Lead: Heart king

“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

In today’s deal, when the opponents bid and support hearts, North should not attempt to play the hand in three no-trump, but should raise to game in diamonds. This bid is fully justified by his significant trump support, not to mention his two aces. Additionally, his doubleton spade rates to be useful in the trump contract, while the weak club intermediates suggest there will be work needed to establish that suit.

Of course, neither West nor East has a hand that suggests a sacrifice at the five-level to save a vulnerable game that may not be made.

At first sight, from South’s perspective on the lead of the heart king, the contract of five diamonds seems to depend on the position of the spade ace. Since this is almost certainly with West, South should look for another line of play. The solution, once you think of it, is simple but ingenious. The heart king is ducked, a club is thrown on the heart ace, and now the club suit can be set up for the discard of three losing spades.

This is a nice example of an avoidance play. However, for the purists it should be noted that the lead of either a trump (followed by a trump continuation) or an initial low club defeats five diamonds. The former lead works because it attacks entries to dummy’s long suit, while the latter succeeds because it insures that East will gain the lead to put a spade through declarer’s gizzard.

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, April 4th, 2011

April 18th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  6 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 NT	Pass	2 ♣	Pass
2 ♠	Pass	4 ♠	All pass

Opening Lead: Spade two

“If I ever do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another.”

— Laurence Sterne

In today’s deal you play four spades with only two top club losers, but nothing close to 10 winners. Moreover, West finds the most effective attack when he leads a trump, preventing you from ruffing two losers in dummy. If the defenders can get a second round of trumps in early, you appear to be running short of tricks.

It would be easy to assume that you needed the heart finesse to come close to your contract, but that would be to ignore dummy’s long diamonds. However, considerable care needs to be taken to insure that you can bring the diamond suit in without running into trump trouble. You must win the trump lead in dummy to guarantee that you have enough high trumps in hand to cope with the threat of a bad diamond break. You win the spade 10 at trick one, then take the diamond ace and the heart ace. Next you cross to dummy with the diamond king to ruff a diamond in your hand with a high trump.

Then comes a spade to the jack and a second diamond ruff with a high trump. Now you concede a heart, can arrange to ruff either a club or heart low in dummy, then draw the last trump and take your long diamond for your 10th winner.

If you try to be economical and win the first trump lead in your hand, you will go down. West scores a trump trick one way or another.

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, April 3rd, 2011

April 17th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, April 3rd, 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, April 2nd, 2011

April 16th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  3 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
			1 ♠
2 ♣	4 ♠	5 ♣	Pass
Pass	Dbl.	All pass	South

Opening Lead: Take your pick!

“Those magnificent men in their flying machines.”

— Lorraine Williams

At the halfway point of the 2010 Canadian Trials, the eventual winners (team Gartaganis) and their opponents were running neck and neck. After that, Gartaganis ran away with the match, with the help of deals like today’s.

Both tables reached five clubs, but in one room the defense started routinely with a spade to the ace and a diamond switch. Nick Gartaganis won this, ruffed two spades in dummy, drew trump, and led up to the heart honors to chalk up an easy 400.

Just as the Vugraph spectators were beginning to speculate on the fate of the contract on the highly unlikely trump lead, Piotr Klimowicz selected the club three for his opening salvo. Declarer won this in hand and played a heart. On this trick, Klimowicz made his second nice, and highly necessary, play by ducking the ace. If he wins the heart ace, declarer can come to three heart tricks — but more importantly, the hearts give him entries to ruff out diamonds. He gets home with six clubs, three hearts, and two diamonds.

Now declarer, in dummy with the heart king, called for a spade, and it was Gordon Campbell’s turn to shine, as East. He “rose” to the occasion when he ducked his spade A-K-Q to allow partner to win the spade and play another trump. After that, it was all over — wriggle as he might, declarer was always going to lose the two aces, and either a second heart or a second spade.

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, April 1st, 2011

April 15th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, April 1st, 2011 

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

 

South	West	North	East
2 NT	Pass	6 NT	All pass

Opening Lead: Heart 10

“No more the smith his dusky brow shall clear,

— Oliver Goldsmith

In today’s deal you might relax when dummy comes down, imagining you had 12 top winners and that the only issue was how to play for the overtrick. But because you have only 11 sure winners unless spades split, you should focus on how to generate that extra trick if things go wrong.

Sometimes in situations of this sort it is right to run the long suit and play for opponents to discard incorrectly, but here both opponents can probably release hearts comfortably enough, and your own hand comes under some pressure. Accordingly, it looks right to test spades early.

You win the heart lead in hand with the king and start by cashing the spade ace — in case the suit is 5-0. When you next lead a spade to the king, the bad break is revealed. You could now rely on either player holding the club ace singleton or doubleton. However, far better is to play East for the club ace, in which case you can bring him under irresistible pressure.

The play is simplicity itself. At trick four you lead a club toward the queen (which East must duck), then run the diamonds, throwing the heart ace and a spade.

In the four-card ending, East can keep the guarded club ace and his two spades, but finally the heart queen squeezes him down to a bare black honor. No matter which card he lets go, you pitch from the other black suit and establish your 12th winner in comfort.

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, March 31st, 2011

April 14th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 ♠	3 ♥	4 ♥	Pass
4 ♠	Pass	4 NT	Pass
5 ♠*	Pass	5 NT	Pass
6 ♣	Pass	6 ♠	All pass

*Two of the five aces (counting the trump king as an ace), plus the trump queen

Opening Lead: Heart king

“Be wise with speed;

— Edward Young

In today’s deal most declarers, if pressed, would admit that they would be unlikely to go down in six spades unless they lost two diamond tricks. Accordingly, they should direct their efforts to catering for bad splits in that suit.

The normal way to play the slam is to take the heart king with the ace and draw trumps in two rounds. Then comes the club ace and king, a club ruff to strip off the clubs, and a heart ruff in dummy to get rid of that suit. The stage is set to play diamonds to best advantage.

At this point declarer leads a diamond to his jack. If it loses to a singleton king, West must concede defeat at once by giving a ruff-sluff. If West can play back the diamond seven, declarer inserts dummy’s eight and is protected against any lie of the cards. If West can return the 10, declarer runs this round to his ace and can finesse against West if he has the two remaining diamonds.

What if the diamond jack scores, as it would do in the diagramed layout? Declarer now must take care to lead a low diamond from hand and duck in dummy (or if feeling really greedy, cross to dummy with a trump to lead a diamond toward his ace, intending to duck unless the king appears). This line insures the contract. Either the diamonds will be split, or East will be endplayed to lead a diamond into the split tenace or give a ruff-sluff.

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, March 30th, 2011

April 13th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  6 Comments 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: Diamond king

“They draw, they sit, they shuffle, cut and deal,

— George Crabbe

As South in the balancing seat you are far too good simply to bid two hearts, and a jump to three hearts, while it should not be weak (or you might have passed), should be intermediate, say 13-16 with a good six-card suit. Accordingly, you should plan to double, then jump in hearts, to suggest close to a strong jump overcall in hearts, allowing North to appreciate his collection of queens and jacks and raise to game.

West starts off accurately by cashing his side’s two diamond winners and exiting passively with a trump. Declarer appears to need a minor miracle in spades or the doubleton club queen, but he can do much better than that. He draws trumps ending in hand and leads a low spade toward the queen. Assuming West can bring himself to duck, you take both club winners and exit from hand with the spade king, hoping to drop either the spade jack or 10 from East. If that happens, then West is on lead and either has to open up the spades to provide you with a discard for your club loser, or play a diamond to allow you to ruff on the board and pitch your club loser.

Assuming the spades are 5-2 rather than 6-1 (likely because West did not to try to give his partner a spade ruff), this line succeeds whenever East began with a doubleton jack or 10, about a 50 percent chance.

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, March 29th, 2011

April 12th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  3 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 ♠	Pass	2 ♣	Pass
2 ♠	Pass	2 NT	Pass
3 ♠	Pass	4 ♣*	Dbl.
4 NT	Pass	5 ♣**	Pass
6 ♠	All pass

*Cuebid

**zero or three aces

Opening Lead: Club five

“Every time it rains it rains pennies from Heaven.”

— Johnny Burke

Often the easiest of contracts require declarer to plan for what might go wrong, rather than blithely assuming the sun will stay out for him.

When today’s six-spade deal came up, South took no time at all to plan his play and so took no time at all to go down. He decided, wisely, to reject the club finesse, so went up with the ace and played the trump ace. When the spades broke 3-0 offside, he had no hope of avoiding the losers in the black suits and was doomed to one down.

While the idea of preserving the finesse against East in trumps is a good one, there are some things that cannot wait at the bridge table, while occasionally drawing trumps must take second place. Here, South should have cashed the heart ace at trick two before playing a trump to the ace. If spades are 2-1, declarer draws trumps and claims 12 tricks. If East turns up with trump length, declarer finesses in trumps and takes his 12 winners. But when the unfavorable trump break comes to light, declarer has a second string to his bow. He advances the heart queen, intending to run this card and discard his club loser if East does not cover. If East does cover, declarer ruffs away the heart king, cashes the spade king, crosses to the diamond ace and pitches his club loser on the heart jack.

The defenders are helpless, and declarer loses just the one trump trick.

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, March 28th, 2011

April 11th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  7 Comments 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: Spade two

“Men, you are all marksmen — don’t one of you fire until you the see the whites of their eyes.”

— Israel Putnam

Tor Helness of Norway and Geir Helgemo have been ranked as one of the best pairs in the world for 15 years. But Tor’s other regular partner is not nearly as well-known, his wife Gunn.

At the 2nd European Open Championships in 2005, Gunn and Tor swept the board in the mixed events. In the most recent Open Championships, held in Antalya, Turkey, Gunn unerringly found the only defense to defeat South’s three-no-trump contract, arrived at after South had shown length in clubs and control in spades.

Gunn, on lead, chose a low spade, which went to the three, queen and king. Had declarer won the trick with the ace, West might have been left in doubt as to the location of the spade king.- However, if it was East who possessed the diamond ace, winning with the spade king was maybe the right choice.

The point is that declarer has eight tricks on top, and if a ninth could be sneaked through before the defenders could signal the location of their assets, the game would come home.

At trick two, declarer did indeed lead a diamond. Gunn Helness was quick to rise with the ace, and just as quick to return the correct technical card to break the contract — the heart jack. This is the “surround” play, made on the assumption that South held the heart 10, as he did (whether doubleton or tripleton). Whatever declarer did, the defenders could run the heart suit on defense.

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, March 27th, 2011

April 10th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  4 Comments 

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