The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, January 1st, 2011

January 15th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, January 1st, 2011 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♦ Jack

“Up Guards and at them again!”

— Duke of Wellington

One of the questions I am often asked is whether people should take the same approach in a pairs event as in a teams contest. The simple answer is that there is little difference in the bidding, but frequently one adopts a different approach in the play.

Succeeding at matchpoint pairs often involves collecting overtricks and undertricks, but teams is a purer (and simpler) form of the game, where your objective is to make your contracts, or defeat the opponents’ contract, if possible. As declarer in a pairs game, you will normally play for the maximum number of tricks rather than ensuring your contract at all costs.

Having said that, consider the following problem at teams. As West, you lead the diamond jack against three no-trump. Dummy’s ace wins the trick, partner playing the two. Declarer then plays the club ace and a club to his queen, East playing the jack and 10. Plan the defense.

From partner’s signal at trick one and his spot cards in clubs, it looks as though declarer has four club tricks and three diamond tricks. Those, plus the spade ace, mean you cannot afford to give him a heart trick or he will have his nine winners. You must try to set up the spades on defense, so your only realistic chance is to find partner with spade length.

Your best play is to switch to the spade king, hoping partner has a four-card suit and the heart ace. Shifting to the king covers the situation where declarer has the bare 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 2011. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, December 31, 2010

January 14th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  3 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1♥	Pass	2♠	Pass
3♦	Pass	3♥	Pass
4♣	Pass	4 NT	Pass
5♥	Pass	5 NT	Pass
6♥	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♣ K

“It is circumstance and proper timing that give an action its character and make it either good or bad.”

— Agesilaus

After North’s strong jump shift and a check on controls, you find yourself playing in six hearts. West leads the club king. What is the best plan to make 12 tricks?

The surest way is to set up dummy’s spades. After winning the opening lead with the club ace, your first move should be to play a trump to your ace. If hearts prove to be 4-0, you would need a 3-3 spade break and so would play the spade ace and king and ruff a spade. If the spades broke, you could then cross to the trump queen and play good spades, throwing your remaining diamond losers. When the defender ruffed with his penultimate trump, you could win his return and return to dummy with the trump king to enjoy the rest of the spades.

When both opponents follow to the first round of trumps, the type of hostile layout where you need to find the right play to succeed occurs when West is short in spades and long in trumps.

The way to overcome any 4-2 spade break is to play the spade three from hand and the two from dummy! Then you will be able to win the return, cross to dummy with the trump queen, and ruff a spade low in your hand. You can then cross to the trump king, drawing West’s last trump in the process, and discard your diamond losers on the four good spades.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, December 30, 2010

January 13th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 NT	Pass	4♥*	Pass
4♠	All Pass

*Texas Transfer

Opening Lead: ♥ 3

“We live in an age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road, but even of its direction.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Today’s deal comes from “Masterpieces of Defense” by Julian Pottage, a writer who has demonstrated imagination and creativity in constructing bridge problems of all sorts. I wholeheartedly recommend his book.

Put yourself in the West seat and cover up the South and East cards to re-create the real-life problem you might be facing. A strong no-trump opening bid by South and a Texas Transfer by North sees you defending four spades. You lead the heart three, and partner plays king, ace and another, declarer following three times. What now?

The first question is whether your side might have a minor-suit ace to cash. You should assume that the answer is no — if you can trust your partner. The point is that if your partner had a minor-suit ace, he should have cashed it at trick three and not left you to guess what to do.

Assuming that to be true, where else might a defensive winner come from? Obviously, if partner has a natural trump trick, he will get it whatever you do, so try to determine when your play might make a difference. The answer is that if partner has precisely K-9-x of spades, you might be able to build a trump trick for him.

Your only legitimate way to achieve the trump promotion is by continuing with a fourth round of hearts. Whatever declarer does now, East must make a trump trick (provided he remembers not to overruff 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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, December 29, 2010

January 12th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
	Pass	Pass	1 NT*
Dbl.	2♣	3♦	Pass
3 NT	All Pass
*12-14

Opening Lead: ♠ J

“Things have their due measure; there are ultimately fixed limits, beyond which, or short of which, something must be wrong.”

— Horace

Against three no-trump West leads the spade jack, overtaken by East’s queen. You duck and East continues with the spade king and a third spade, which you win with the ace.

You need to develop three tricks from diamonds to bring your total to nine. This will not be a problem if diamonds are 3-3 or the 10 drops doubleton, but with today’s layout you need to be careful. Suppose you play a diamond to dummy’s king, East will surely duck and win the next top diamond to exit with a club. You will win and cross to dummy with the heart king, but when the diamond 10 does not fall, you will no longer have an entry to dummy to be able to enjoy your extra diamond winners. You would be reduced to hoping for a 3-3 club break.

Even if East wins the first diamond, you would still be in trouble. Suppose you win the club and continue diamonds from the top. Your heart entry is still intact, but West will win the diamond 10 and cash the 13th spade, the fifth defensive trick.

So instead, why not run the diamond eight on the first round of the suit? If East wins with the 10, he can do you no harm. You win his return and now play your top diamonds, knowing you will be able to reach dummy’s established winners by crossing to the heart king.

Had East shifted to a heart at trick three, that would be another story.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, December 28, 2010

January 11th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  10 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
			1♣
1♠	3♣*	4♠	All Pass

*Pre-emptive

Opening Lead: ♣ 3

“The race is over, but the work never is done while the power to work remains.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Anna Gudge is one of the unsung heroes of bridge, a woman who coordinates the worldwide simultaneous events and organizes charity tournaments like those for the victims of the Pakistani Earthquakes and of recent tsunamis.

The same deals are played in different clubs around the world, and the event is scored over the whole field, with lots of masterpoints at stake. At the end you are given a booklet with a commentary on the deals.

The following deal occurred in a recent event. As South, plan the play in four spades.

Superficially, the contract seems to depend on two finesses if West’s openng lead is a heart, but on the lead of the club three, declarer can give himself an extra chance.

He should win the club ace and ruff a club. He then plays a diamond to dummy’s queen, cashes the diamond ace, ruffs a club, and ruffs a diamond. When it turns out that West started with king-third of diamonds, declarer no longer needs to risk the spade finesse. He should play a spade to his ace, and then, even if the spade king has not dropped, he intends to play the winning diamond jack, discarding a losing heart from dummy. When West’s spade king does fall, declarer emerges with an unlikely overtrick.

Incidentally, the percentage play in the spade suit (in abstract) is to finesse. If East has a doubleton spade, he is more likely to have the king than West.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Monday, December 27, 2010

January 10th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Monday, December 27, 2010 

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

 

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

*Showing three hearts

Opening Lead: ♦ 4

“An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.”

— Sidney Justin Harris

Today’s deal is all about counting. See if you can match declarer’s effort from the finals of a recent U.S. trials.

I thought Roger Bates handled his delicate four-spade contract very carefully, finding a fine line of play. His partner, Ralph Katz, thought the three-spade call was forcing — as would I — so maybe the South hand is not worth more than a bid of two spades at the second turn after the initial double.

The net result was that Bates declared a game that would have been impossible to make on a heart lead. However, on a diamond lead and heart shift (a trump switch would have worked better, but one can understand East’s play), Bates was still in with a chance.

He went up with the heart ace and played a club. West took his ace and tried two more rounds of hearts. Bates ruffed, led the diamond king, ruffed a diamond, then cashed the club king and saw the queen drop from East. If this was a true card, East was known to have started with three hearts, four diamonds, apparently only two clubs, and thus must have four spades. Accordingly, a single finesse in spades would not bring the suit home safely. The only legitimate chance was to find West with the singleton spade queen.

Accordingly, Bates played a trump to the ace and was rewarded when West’s queen fell — four spades bid and made.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, December 26, 2010

January 9th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  3 Comments 

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, December 25, 2010

January 8th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
			Pass
2♣	Pass	2 NT	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♥*	Pass
4 NT	Pass	5♦	Pass
6♠	All Pass
*Cuebid

Opening Lead: ♠ Q

“Grace is given of God, but knowledge is bought in the market.”

— Arthur Hugh Clough

Against six spades West leads the trump queen, and when you win and play a second round of trumps, East discards a club. How do you plan to make 12 tricks after this development?

The best approach is to try to remove West’s hearts and clubs, then follow that up by throwing him in with a trump to lead diamonds or concede a ruff and discard. Either way, you will make 12 tricks.

One of the declarers in a team game played three rounds of clubs immediately, but West ruffed the third club and exited safely with a heart. When the diamond finesse lost, that was down one.

The second declarer showed the correct way to play the hand, which relies only on West’s having at least one heart and one club. He cashed the heart king and led a low heart toward dummy. West did not want to ruff a loser and thus set up one of dummy’s heart winners to take care of the diamond queen. Accordingly, he discarded a club, and declarer took the trick with dummy’s heart ace, then returned to hand with the club ace and led another heart. Dummy’s heart queen won, and declarer continued with the two remaining club winners.

West was now fixed. If he ruffed either of these, he would have to play a diamond away from the king. When he declined to ruff, declarer threw him in with a trump for the same outcome — 12 tricks to declarer.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, December 24, 2010

January 7th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  8 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
	Pass	Pass	Pass
2♣	Pass	2♦	Pass
2 NT	Pass	6 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♥ J

“All men know the utility of useful things, but they do not know the utility of futility.”

— Chuang-tzu

How would you play six no-trump after West leads the heart jack? The declarer at one table in a teams match believed he was very unlucky to go down. He took the heart lead, cashed the diamond king and queen, and crossed to the club ace. At this point, slightly late in the day, he realized that there was no other entry to dummy, so he played the diamond ace, discarding his spade loser.

Next, he played the king and queen of clubs, revealing the 4-2 break. Declarer now conceded a club trick, but East had a diamond to cash for the setting trick.

While the first declarer was surely unlucky that the diamond jack had not fallen in three rounds and that one defender had both four diamonds and four clubs, it was left to the second declarer to show how the hand should have been played. This declarer won the heart lead and unblocked the top diamonds from hand, then played a low club from both hands at trick four. He was able to win the return, cross to the club ace, and make a spade, three hearts, four diamonds and four clubs.

The difference between the two approaches was that by giving up a club early after unblocking the diamonds, declarer surrendered his chance of an overtrick. But in return he had insured that the defenders would not be able to cash a diamond winner when on lead.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, December 23, 2010

January 6th, 2011  ~  admin  ~  4 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
2 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♠ 10

“But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal impulses and preferences.”

— John Stuart Mill

Some deals that require nothing more subtle than basic technique nonetheless can be surprisingly difficult until you see the point.

In today’s deal from the Dyspeptics Club, South was at the helm in three no-trump. He started well when he ducked the opening spade lead and won the second. Then he took the club finesse, won the spade continuation, and ran off his club winners before taking the losing diamond finesse. Alas for him, West had two spades to cash — down one.

North snapped his pencil and muttered something uncharitable about bridge in the slow lane. Was he right to be upset?

I can understand his frustration, although I suspect I might have been sympathetic to an inexperienced partner who had made the same mistake. Nevertheless, South had a blind spot, the point being that he needed to establish both minors, but also had to keep the danger hand (West) off lead once spades had been established.

The right approach on winning the first top spade is to play the diamond ace followed by the diamond queen, not caring who takes the trick. As it happens, West wins the diamond king and plays a third spade to your ace. Now South can run the club queen; East can take his king when he likes, but cannot prevent declarer from scoring three clubs, three diamonds, two spades and one heart.

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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].