The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, October 23, 2010

November 6th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, October 23, 2010 

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

 

South	West	North	East
	1♣	Pass	1♦
Pass	1 NT	Pass	Pass
2♥	Dbl.	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♦ Q

“Yet both so passing strange and wonderful!”

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

There is a strange coincidence linking yesterday’s deal, played in 1997 by Michael Rosenberg, to today’s, which was played by Jared Lilienstein five years later. His teammates at the time included Rosenberg, who collected a partscore for East-West in one no-trump on this deal.

In our featured room, after the same start, Jared (South) protected with two hearts. Clearly not a student of bridge literature, West doubled and led the diamond queen to dummy’s ace. A club to the jack scored, and the next club went to East’s king. East tried to cash the diamond king, but Lilienstein ruffed and finessed in spades.

Now East had her chance to play a trump — West cashes two trumps and then plays the diamond six East’s king to set up a force. Instead, though, East exited in clubs to West, who played a second spade.

Lilienstein won in dummy, ruffed a diamond, cashed the spade queen, and had reached a four-card ending where he had taken six tricks. He had three trumps and the 13th club in hand; dummy had a spade, a diamond and two trumps; and West was down to all trumps.

When declarer led his club, planning to ruff with the trump jack and lead a diamond to endplay West, that player could do no better than ruff in with the heart queen and lead back a low trump to the nine, 10 and king. With the eight and jack of trumps left, Lilienstein was sure of one more trick for his 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 2010. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, October 22, 2010

November 5th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
	1♣	Pass	1♦
Pass	1 NT	Pass	Pass
2♠	Dbl.	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♦ Q

“It’s a very odd thing —

Turns into Miss T.”

— Walter de la Mare

Do you believe in coincidences at bridge? Today’s and tomorrow’s deals bear a weird similarity to each other. As you will see, the coincidences do not stop there.

At the World Championships in Tunisia in 1997, Michael Rosenberg boldly protected against the Chinese East-West pair, and West decided to try to punish him for his impudence.

The defenders led the diamond queen and shifted to the club nine, which went to the 10 and ace. Now back came the heart three to the 10 and ace, and another heart to Rosenberg’s queen.

Declarer ruffed two diamonds in hand while cashing his remaining heart and club winners, to reach a four-card ending with the lead in South and six tricks in the bag. Rosenberg had three trumps and a club left in hand, West had all his trumps left, and dummy had two spades and one card in each red suit. The East hand was irrelevant.

Declarer now advanced his club (planning to ruff with the spade jack and collect one more trump trick subsequently). West could do no better than ruff with the queen and lead a low spade, hoping his partner has the spade nine. But Rosenberg could run the spade to his hand and make two trump tricks for his contract.

After the first two tricks, the only way to set the contract was for East to shift to a trump at trick three. Two early rounds of spades insures that West collects his third trump winner eventually.

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, October 21, 2010

November 4th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, October 21, 2010 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♥ 9

“The man is a perfect stone. We might boil him in the pig-market, and we should get no word out of him.”

— Victor Hugo

As big, if not especially bad, Wolff, I’ve always had a remarkably soft spot for the tormentor of the three little pigs. Let’s look at them in action here, where each one of them declares six hearts on the challenging trump lead. Little piggy number one wins the trump in dummy and ruffs a diamond, crosses to the club ace to ruff a second diamond, then leads a second club and is more hurt than surprised when East ruffs in and cashes his spade ace for down one.

Little piggy number two exerts a trifle more diligence. He wins the trump lead and crosses back to hand with a top club to ruff a second diamond. So far so good, but now, after cashing dummy’s top trump, he leads a low spade from the board, and East steels himself to duck the trick. West wins his spade eight and returns a club. East ruffs, and there is no joy in Pigville.

The third little piggy is made of sterner stuff. Again, play starts with a trump lead won in dummy. Declarer cashes both top diamonds, ruffs a diamond low, then crosses to hand with a club to ruff a second diamond. If diamonds had not split, he might need to risk coming back to hand with a club to draw the trumps. As it is, he now exits from dummy by leading the spade king! This prevents the club ruff, unless one defender has the spade ace and five clubs, when declarer was doomed anyway.

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, October 20, 2010

November 3rd, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 

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

 

South	West	North	East
		Pass	Pass
1♥	Pass	2♥	Pass
3♦	Pass	4♥	All Pass

Opening Lead: To be determined!

“For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two.”

— Rudyard Kipling

The following deal from the 1995 finals of the New York Reisinger features two subtle points in play and defense. Alas, in both rooms these points became evident only in the post-mortem and not at the table.

Four hearts was the contract in both rooms. In the first room West’s heart lead worked fine, up to a point. Declarer, Mike Kamil won in hand and passed the diamond nine. East won his 10 and might have shifted to the club nine (or even the club jack), but in fact he played the club six, to the eight and 10. Now I think a second diamond from West can hardly be wrong (whether declarer has three or four diamonds, there are no discards coming), but West returned the club king and declarer was home.

The game went down in the other room on a spade lead. There, declarer rose with the spade ace at trick one and took an early club finesse of the queen. He now had no chance. But consider what might have happened if South had nonchalantly played low from dummy at trick one! Even if East wins the trick, he may well give up a vital entry to dummy at his next play. And as the cards lay, would he not find it very hard to refrain from playing the spade nine at trick one? If East wins with an honor at this point, declarer can always dispose of his diamond loser on the spade ace.

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, October 19, 2010

November 2nd, 2010  ~  admin  ~  1 Comment 

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

 

South	West	North	East
		3♥	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♣*	Pass
6♣	All Pass

*Cuebid agreeing spades

Opening Lead: ♣ A

“No! The two kinds of people on earth that I mean

Are the people who lift and the people who lean.”

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This was my favorite deal from the Birmingham Nationals, when New York expert Mel Colchamiro cornered me on my way to the elevator and gave me a beautiful hand. Beware: It’s far harder than it looks, even though it is far from complicated.

Without going into too many details of the auction — we would not want to embarrass any guilty parties — consider the play in six spades. Best defense is obviously to lead two rounds of clubs, but your generous opponent plays a top club and shifts to diamonds. Obviously he believes you might have bid a slam off two aces. It is up to you to punish him for such an insult.

The natural thing to do is to cash the spade ace and the heart king. Then you lead the spade 10 from hand. If West discards, you need the heart queen to fall. If West follows, you must guess immediately whether trumps are splitting or hearts behave. That looks pretty good, but it is far from best.

The winning line is to overtake the heart king with the ace at trick two and ruff a heart high. If that suit splits or if the heart queen is bare, you have no problem in drawing trumps, ending in dummy. If hearts do not behave, you need 2-2 spades — it’s as simple as that. On this occasion hearts split and spades do not, so if you play spades first, you had better guess very well!

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, October 18, 2010

November 1st, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Monday, October 18, 2010 

Dealer: South Vul: None	North ♠ K 6 ♥ A 6 3 ♦ K 8 4 ♣ Q J 9 7 4
West ♠ 3 ♥ Q 10 9 4 2 ♦ J 6 5 ♣ A 6 5 2		East ♠ A 9 7 5 2 ♥ J 7 ♦ Q 7 3 ♣ 10 8 3
	South ♠ Q J 10 8 4 ♥ K 8 5 ♦ A 10 9 2 ♣ K

 

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

Opening Lead: ♥ 4

“Heaven be their resource who have no other but the charity of the world, the stock of which, I fear, is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it.”

— Laurence Sterne

The traditional opening event of every national tournament in the United States is the Charity Pairs. On this deal from a recent charity game, most of the field reached three no-trump and, in a display of charity to their opponents, generally failed to apply the correct technique.

The auction put West on lead with an easy attack of the heart 10. With the heart suit lying as it does, you (South) must consider your first move carefully.

If the heart suit splits 4-3, it is irrelevant whether you win the first round of the suit or the second . But see what happens if you take the first heart and drive out the spade ace. (If you lead the club king, West will duck, and normal play thereafter will lead to your defeat.) When East takes the spade ace and returns the heart jack, West overtakes and can clear the suit while retaining the club ace as an entry. The bad spade split leaves you a trick short.

The key play is to duck the first heart (often the right play when you have no other danger suit, and must knock out two key cards). Then win the second heart in hand. Now you have started to sever the defenders’ communications. The point is that East will have no hearts left when you drive out his spade ace. He has to shift, letting you dislodge the club ace at your leisure. Ducking at trick one makes the difference between an undertrick and an overtrick.

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, October 17, 2010

October 31st, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, October 17, 2010 

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, October 16, 2010

October 30th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2 NT*	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♠	Pass
6♠	All Pass

*Game-forcing with spades

Opening Lead: ♣ 9

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

— Plutarch

Against a slam it is less frequently right than you might think to make a passive opening lead, not risking giving declarer his 12th trick. The point is that a good declarer can often draw the necessary inferences, even when the lead has given nothing tangible away. This was the case in six spades on the lead of the club nine.

Declarer knew West well enough to take the lead at face value, as being based on shortage. He could see that any straightforward line of play would inevitably lead to the loss of a diamond and a club. So he won the club ace and took the seemingly unnecessary heart finesse.

Then he played off five rounds of spades to produce a six-card ending. This reduced East (who had to keep all his clubs or else declarer would simply duck a club) to one heart, two diamonds and three clubs. Accordingly declarer cashed his two hearts, forcing East to pitch a diamond. Now declarer read the position perfectly. He took the diamond ace and ran the club eight around to East, who won the trick but had to return a club into dummy’s K-J.

East had another option in the six-card ending. He might have kept all his hearts and clubs, and pitched his diamonds. Now declarer has to cash the diamond ace to squeeze East in the same way as described previously.

A diamond leads beats the slam outright, and a heart lead would probably do the job too.

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, October 15, 2010

October 29th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, October 15, 2010 

Dealer: East Vul: None	North ♠ 6 5 4 2 ♥ 5 4 ♦ K 8 7 3 ♣ K 10 9
West ♠ 7 3 ♥ A 10 7 3 ♦ A J 10 2 ♣ Q 5 4		East ♠ 8 ♥ K J 9 8 6 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ J 7 6 2
	South ♠ A K Q J 10 9 ♥ Q ♦ Q 5 4 ♣ A 8 3

 

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

Opening Lead: ♥ A

“Truth, like a torch, the more it’s shook it shines.”

— Sir William Hamilton

In four spades (reached after South’s strong jump overcall of the pre-empt), West led the heart ace and a second heart to East’s king. It looks as if you need a 3-3 diamond break, or else must guess which opponent has ace doubleton. But the auction suggests that West may well hold four diamonds headed by the ace. Can you see what you can do if that is the case?

Provided that East has the diamond jack, 10 or nine in his doubleton, and holds one of the outstanding club honors, your spade game can succeed.

Ruff the heart, draw trumps, and play the diamond queen. West will win and can do little else but return a low diamond. (Everything else, except perhaps a deceptive club queen, looks worse.) You now duck the diamond to East. If he returns a diamond, the suit is 3-3 and you can discard a club from your hand. A heart lead gives you a ruff and sluff, so the best he can do is broach the club suit, thus enabling you to play that suit for no losers when the honors are divided.

Note that if either defender is forced to open up the club suit, he should do so by leading his honor, thus giving declarer the losing option of playing him for both honors.

And one final point: West should have switched to a trump at trick two. Now declarer cannot ruff dummy’s last heart except by using the diamond king prematurely.

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, October 14, 2010

October 28th, 2010  ~  admin  ~  1 Comment 

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

 

South	West	North	East
		Pass	Pass
1 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♦ 5

“Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period, but wakes up during adversity.”

— Jean Jacques Rousseau

How should South set about playing one no-trump on a low diamond lead? The first careful play South should make is to put up dummy’s 10. Who knows, it may hold the trick! Assuming East covers the 10, I’m guessing many declarers would duck the trick, on general principle, win the next diamond, then go after hearts. Some might cash the four club winners early, hoping for a defensive error, but the result ought to be the same.

The point is that whether South leads a low heart to the jack or runs the queen from hand (hoping for a defensive error), the defenders are in control. They should emerge with three heart tricks, two spades, and two diamonds.

Mrs. Guggenheim (South), who hates to duck tricks, might do better here. She would win the first diamond, thereby preserving an exit-card. She can now make one no-trump simply by cashing the four club tricks (pitching a major-suit card from hand) and the second diamond trick. Then she exits with the third diamond. The defenders can win only two diamonds plus their four aces and kings before giving declarer her seventh trick with one of her major-suit stoppers. They have to lead one of the majors, and whichever one they broach, declarer gets to establish the third round of that suit by simply preserving her queens and jacks till they are good.

Note that if diamonds are not 4-4 (and clubs 3-3), you have no realistic chance to make your contract whatever you do.

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].