May 1st, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 17, 2010 
| Dealer: North
Vul: N-S |
North |
|
| ♠ |
Q J 5 4 |
| ♥ |
9 8 6 5 |
| ♦ |
A K 7 |
| ♣ |
4 2 |
| West |
 |
East |
| ♠ |
9 6 |
♠ |
10 8 7 2 |
| ♥ |
K J 10 7 3 |
♥ |
4 2 |
| ♦ |
10 4 |
♦ |
Q J 8 3 |
| ♣ |
K Q J 10 |
♣ |
6 5 3 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
A K 3 |
| ♥ |
A Q |
| ♦ |
9 6 5 2 |
| ♣ |
A 9 8 7 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
Pass |
Pass |
| 1 NT |
2 ♥* |
Dbl.** |
Pass |
| 2 NT |
Pass |
3 NT |
All Pass |
| * Hearts and |
a minor |
|
|
| **Takeout |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: ♣ King
“Anger is never without an argument, but seldom with a good one.”
— Marquis of Halifax
Any contract that will make if a finesse succeeds cannot be considered hopeless. Sometimes, though, the auction will tell you that there has to be something better. Put yourself in South’s shoes and see if you can spot the improvement.
At the world championships held in Bermuda in 2000 when Denmark played Canada in the qualifying round of the Venice Cup, both declarers reached three no-trump and knew from the auction that the heart finesse would fail. They ducked the first two clubs, and worked out that West had the long club from the defenders’ signals.
They won the third club and decided against trying to find a doubleton J-10 or the heart king onside. Instead, they cashed the ace and king of diamonds, took two top spades, and exited with the fourth club. At this point West, with nothing but hearts left, had to lead into declarer’s A-Q, conceding the ninth trick.
As you can see, the natural play might be for declarer to win an early club and cash all the spade winners, but then there would be no way back to hand to endplay West in clubs. To succeed, declarer must find West with relatively short spades and diamonds. The auction has made that a virtual certainty since with nine cards in hearts and clubs, West could not have much room for length in either of the other suits.
ANSWER: If the opponents had not tipped you off to a likely bad break in hearts, you might have made a cue-bid of two diamonds to show a good raise in hearts. But the auction has suggested your hand will not be pulling its full weight, so maybe a simple if somewhat heavy raise to two hearts might now be more discreet.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
Q J 5 4 |
| ♥ |
9 8 6 5 |
| ♦ |
A K 7 |
| ♣ |
4 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 ♦ |
1 ♥ |
1 NT |
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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].
April 30th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, April 16, 2010
| Dealer: West
Vul: N-S |
North |
|
| ♠ |
K Q 9 |
| ♥ |
A Q J |
| ♦ |
9 6 4 3 2 |
| ♣ |
8 6 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
10 6 |
♠ |
8 7 3 2 |
| ♥ |
10 9 2 |
♥ |
7 5 3 |
| ♦ |
10 |
♦ |
A K Q J 8 5 |
| ♣ |
A J 10 9 5 3 2 |
♣ |
— |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
A J 5 4 |
| ♥ |
K 8 6 4 |
| ♦ |
7 |
| ♣ |
K Q 7 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
2 NT* |
Pass |
3 ♣ |
| Dbl. |
Pass |
4 ♣ |
Dbl. |
| Pass |
Pass |
Rdbl. |
Pass |
| 4 ♥ |
All Pass |
|
|
Opening Lead: ♦ 10
“Though I beheld at first with blank surprise
This Work, I now have gazed on it so long
I see its truth with unreluctant eyes.”
— William Wordsworth
When you lead a singleton 10 in a side suit against a suit contract, your main hope is that partner is going to be able to give you a ruff. It is rare to find yourself still on lead at trick two – but you now have a chance to rethink your defense plan. See if you can match the strategy devised by Terry Weigkricht of Austria in this deal from the quarterfinals of the 2000 World Championships, from where all this week’s deals come.
After an artificial auction Weigkricht found herself on lead to four hearts. The diamond 10 held the first trick as Doris Fischer followed with the five, and Weigkricht realized that the auction and play thus far strongly indicated that she should play a club. It may look natural to play the club ace and give your partner a ruff, but that does not defeat the hand. Declarer can ruff the next diamond high, then draw trumps, and throw all three diamond losers on the black-suit winners. Weigkricht found the accurate defense of leading a low club at trick two. Fisher ruffed and led a top diamond, forcing declarer to ruff high. Now declarer could establish the clubs for only one discard. Whether she drew trumps or not, she would finish one trick short.
At several tables, including that at which her teammates were North-South, the defense shifted to ace and another club at trick two against four hearts, letting through the contract.
ANSWER: Your partner is making a slam-try for clubs, with extra values and long clubs. You showed game-forcing values at your first turn; thus, in context, you have nothing to spare. So bid four no-trump, which is discouraging and not Blackwood!
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
K Q 9 |
| ♥ |
A Q J |
| ♦ |
9 6 4 3 2 |
| ♣ |
8 6 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
1 ♣ |
1 ♥ |
| 3 NT |
Pass |
4 ♣ |
Pass
|
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 29th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, April 15, 2010
| Dealer: South
Vul: E-W |
North |
|
| ♠ |
K 9 |
| ♥ |
A K Q 3 |
| ♦ |
9 4 |
| ♣ |
A J 9 8 6 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
8 5 4 3 2 |
♠ |
Q 10 7 |
| ♥ |
9 8 2 |
♥ |
J 7 5 4 |
| ♦ |
A J 3 |
♦ |
K 10 5 |
| ♣ |
Q 10 |
♣ |
K 5 3 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
A J 6 |
| ♥ |
10 6 |
| ♦ |
Q 8 7 6 2 |
| ♣ |
7 4 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| Pass |
Pass |
1 ♣ |
Pass |
| 1 ♦ |
Pass |
1 ♥ |
Pass |
| 1 NT |
Pass |
3 NT |
All Pass |
| |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: ♠ 3
“A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
— William Blake
One problem of being known as a great player is that your opponents will think you capable of doing just about anything. You may get away with some mistakes, but equally, you will not be able to fool your opponents that easily.
That bad luck befell Maria Erhart of Austria in today’s deal from the 2000 Venice Cup semifinals against the Netherlands (the eventual winners of the event). She found the best defense, but she was playing against someone who was not going to fall for a subtle falsecard.
In the other room Austria had played one no-trump from the North seat and had made 11 tricks on a heart lead. However, three no-trump by South on a spade lead from Erhart was not so comfortable. Van der Pas took the lead in hand and played a club, intending to cover West’s card, but Erhart found a challenging counter when she put up the club queen on this trick. Van der Pas had to take dummy’s ace and now had to decide what to do at once since she did not have the entries that would permit her to cross back to hand to play a club up. Had she led a low club from dummy, the defense would have collected five tricks in the minors sooner or later. But she knew Erhart was capable of the deception, so she eventually decided to lead the club jack from the table, pinning the 10 and making her contract.
ANSWER: Just because you have a strong hand does not mean your side has a fit, or that you will do better declaring than defending. When you bid two clubs, you suggested you had a reasonable hand. But you have no extra shape, thus no basis for bidding again. So pass in tempo and hope your partner can balance with three clubs if appropriate.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
K 9 |
| ♥ |
A K Q 3 |
| ♦ |
9 4 |
| ♣ |
A J 9 8 6 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 ♥ |
Pass |
1 ♠ |
| 2 ♣ |
Pass |
Pass |
2 ♠ |
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 28th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
| Dealer: North
Vul: N-S |
North |
|
| ♠ |
J 3 |
| ♥ |
Q 10 9 6 |
| ♦ |
10 9 8 |
| ♣ |
A 10 9 7 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
7 6 4 |
♠ |
A K 8 5 2 |
| ♥ |
A 8 5 2 |
♥ |
K J 3 |
| ♦ |
7 5 3 |
♦ |
2 |
| ♣ |
J 3 2 |
♣ |
8 6 5 4 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
Q 10 9 |
| ♥ |
7 4 |
| ♦ |
A K Q J 6 4 |
| ♣ |
K Q |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
Pass |
1 ♠ |
| 2 ♦ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
| 3 NT |
All Pass |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: ♠ 4
“And now the matchless deed’s achieved,
Determined, dared and done.”
— Christopher Smart
In the quarter-finals of the 2000 Bermuda Bowl World Championships, from where all this week’s deals are taken, put yourself in Jacek Romanski’s seat (East) and cover up the South and West hands to match wits with Zia as declarer.
Against three no-trump Kowalski led the spade four, promising a three-card suit, and Romanski had to decide on a plan. If his partner had a high diamond, the winning defense would be to duck the first or second spade to preserve communications. West would win his diamond to return a spade and let the defenders cash out for down one.
However, if declarer’s diamonds were solid (and the auction had suggested this might be so), then a different defense might be necessary. Romanski guessed very well when he elected to cash two top spades; Kowalski obediently gave suit preference for hearts on the second one by following with the spade seven, and Romanski shifted to a low heart away from his K-J. Kowalski lost no time in winning his ace and returning the suit, to cash out for down one.
In the other room South reached three no-trump by treating his hand as balanced while concealing his diamonds, making a one-no-trump overcall at his first turn. Now the defense stood no realistic chance of guessing what to do on a spade lead. East returned a low spade at trick two, so declarer finished up with 11 tricks and an 11-IMP gain.
ANSWER: It is not clear whether this auction guarantees five diamonds as well as five spades. But given that your partner may need to ruff spades in your hand, your good diamond spots suggest that the 4-3 diamond fit may play as well as spades. On that basis I would pass out two diamonds rather than correcting to two spades.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
J 3 |
| ♥ |
Q 10 9 6 |
| ♦ |
10 9 8 |
| ♣ |
A 10 9 7 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
|
1 ♣ |
| Pass |
1 ♥ |
1 ♠ |
1 NT |
| Pass |
Pass |
2 ♦ |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 27th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
| Dealer: West
Vul: Both |
North |
|
| ♠ |
A 2 |
| ♥ |
A J 10 |
| ♦ |
Q 10 8 7 4 3 |
| ♣ |
A 5 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
10 |
♠ |
Q J 9 |
| ♥ |
K 9 7 6 5 2 |
♥ |
Q 4 |
| ♦ |
9 5 2 |
♦ |
J 6 |
| ♣ |
9 7 2 |
♣ |
K Q 10 8 4 3 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
K 8 7 6 5 4 3 |
| ♥ |
8 3 |
| ♦ |
A K |
| ♣ |
J 6 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
Pass |
1 ♦ |
2 ♣ |
| 2 ♠ |
Pass |
2 NT |
Pass |
| 3 ♠ |
Pass |
4 ♣ |
Pass
|
| 4 ♦ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
Pass |
| 5 ♦ |
Pass |
6 ♦ |
Pass |
| 6 ♠ |
All Pass |
|
|
Opening Lead: ♣ 2
“A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came.”
— John Greenleaf Whittier
It is always embarrassing to make a technical error, and to perpetrate it on Vugraph in front of a large audience makes the experience even more painful. Carefully consider the play as South in six spades on a club lead if you want to avoid humiliation — and the turnover of a significant number of IMPs.
What happened in the real world (at the 2000 Bermuda Bowl) was that declarer won the club lead and cashed the top spades, discovering the loser there, then took the diamond ace and king before going to dummy in hearts. When she tried to cash the diamond queen, East ruffed, and while declarer could pitch on this trick, there was still a club or heart loser for declarer one way or the other.
The correct line allows the contract to succeed. Win the club lead, cash the spade king, then take the top diamonds. While you might fail against a 4-1 diamond split, that is considerably less likely than a 3-1 spade split. (Just for the record, spades split evenly somewhat less than half the time; diamonds split 3-2 just over two-thirds of the time.)
Now cross to dummy with the spade ace and cash the diamond queen, discarding your club loser. East can ruff in, of course, but you still have the priceless re-entry to dummy in the heart ace and can discard your heart loser at your leisure.
ANSWER: I do not want you to think I’m a fuddy-duddy; sometimes one has to break the rules. Ignore the fact that you have a six-card suit and instead focus on the fact that this hand is approximately balanced, in the 15-17 range, so the least lie comes from opening it one no-trump. Opening one diamond will give you an ugly rebid problem, no matter what partner does.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
A 2 |
| ♥ |
A J 10 |
| ♦ |
Q 10 8 7 4 3 |
| ♣ |
A 5 |
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 26th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Monday, April 12, 2010
| Dealer: South
Vul: Both |
North |
|
| ♠ |
10 2 |
| ♥ |
A K 5 4 3 |
| ♦ |
8 7 2 |
| ♣ |
K 5 2 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
K 6 3 |
♠ |
7 5 4 |
| ♥ |
10 9 6 |
♥ |
Q J 8 2 |
| ♦ |
K Q 10 9 3 |
♦ |
J 6 4 |
| ♣ |
Q 9 |
♣ |
10 7 3 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
A Q J 9 8 |
| ♥ |
7 |
| ♦ |
A 5 |
| ♣ |
A J 8 6 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
Pass |
Pass |
| 1♠ |
Pass |
2 ♥ |
Pass |
| 3 ♣ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
| 3 NT |
All Pass |
|
|
Opening Lead: ♦ King
“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”
— Charles Dickens
To mark the 10th anniversary of the last Bermuda Bowl to be held in Bermuda, this week’s deals all come from that event. In 2000 Fred Gitelman of Canada was part of the team that won the Transnational silver medal. Having missed the ideal contract here, he had to demonstrate that he was capable of recovering from the auction by finding the best line of play.
When North, focusing on the diamond stop, used the fourth suit instead of showing delayed spade support, he put Gitelman into an awkward contract of no-trump, rather than the more comfortable spade game.
Of course the defense led a top diamond, and the diamond-king lead conventionally requested an unblock, so East dutifully played the jack. Gitelman ducked the first trick and won the next round of the suit. Now the game appears to depend on the spade or the club finesse, but each of them is rather less than a 50 percent chance. Gitelman saw the possibility that he might combine his chances in the two suits by tackling them in the right order. He cashed the ace of clubs, then the king, intending to take the spade finesse if nothing nice happened. When the club queen popped up, Fred did not need the spade finesse, but simply ran for cover by taking his nine top tricks.
This strategy of combining two chances is sometimes referred to as an echelon play and is a very useful way to get two bites at the apple.
ANSWER: If you play fourth-highest leads in this position, you may prefer to lead second from a bad suit and start with the club seven. But there is certainly something to be said for simply leading the true-count card, the three. If you play third and lowest leads, then you must lead the four. You cannot sensibly combine second-highest leads with this method.
LEAD WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
A 4 2 |
| ♥ |
K Q 5 |
| ♦ |
9 7 2 |
| ♣ |
9 7 4 3 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 ♥ |
Pass |
1 ♠ |
| Pass |
2 ♦ |
Pass |
3 ♠ |
| All Pass |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 25th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, April 11, 2010
| Dear Mr. Wolff:
I notice that the better players use third-and-fifth leads. What are the benefits of them, and where can I learn more about them?
— Willing to Learn, Montreal, Quebec
ANSWER: The theoretical advantages of third-and-fifth as opposed to fourth come when you as a defender are trying to work out how long partner’s suit is. In fourth-highest a player leads the same card from suits one apart in length; in third-and-fifth the same card from holdings two cards apart. Bridge logic normally helps you work out a two-card disparity more easily and more often than a one-card disparity.
Two books called “Opening Leads,” one by Bob Ewen, one by Mike Lawrence, are highly recommended, as is the book by Rosler and Rubens called “Journalist Leads.”
Dear Mr. Wolff:
Holding ♠ Q-8-7-4, ♥ 9, ♦ 9-3-2, ♣ A-J-10-3-2, I responded one spade to my partner’s opening bid of one heart. My partner jumped to three spades, and now I thought with only four trumps and a singleton in his suit that I should pass. He turned up with a singleton diamond and we made five in a canter. Was I wrong to pass?
— Chicken Little, Huntington, W.Va.
ANSWER: I understand your logic and (especially if playing with an aggressive partner) might duplicate your decision. However, the good club spots might enable me to set that suit up for discards and thus persuade me to bid on.
Dear Mr. Wolff:
When should honors be declared? Some of us were taught (we couldn’t remember where or when) that one should declare honors immediately before playing the hand. We thought about this and decided that this system would give the opponents too much information, and therefore began to question what we believed we had learned.
— Honor Bound, Portland, Ore.
|
|
ANSWER: You get to claim honors till the score for the rubber has been agreed. So as you suspected (and for precisely the reason you mention) they do NOT have to be claimed at the start of the play of the hand. Best is to claim them when leading the last of the sequence or when drawing what is clearly the last trump.
Dear Mr. Wolff:
What is meant by balancing or protecting? How is bidding in that seat different?
— Shifting Perspective, Columbia, S.C.
ANSWER: When you are last to speak, after two passes, so that your pass would end the auction, you are in the balancing or protecting seat. You tend to reopen when possible, and so overcalls tend to show about a king less than they guarantee in direct seat. By contrast, jump overcalls (often played as weak) should be intermediate in balancing seat, say 12-16 with a good six-carder, and an overcall of one no-trump has a somewhat wider range, say 11-15.
Dear Mr. Wolff:
A few weeks ago you had a column touching on differences in defense between IMPs and matchpoints. Recently I held ♠ A-9, ♥ K-J-3-2, ♦ A-Q-10-8-3-2, ♣ 6. Defending four spades after my partner had eventually raised my diamond suit, I led the club six, won by declarer. I took my trump ace, and underled my diamonds, hoping my partner had the king and would give me a club ruff. Alas, declarer had the singleton diamond king. Result: misery! Was my play sensible?
— Master Blaster, Charlottesville, Va.
ANSWER: Your play sounds reasonable, but let me give you a suggestion. If you use your partner’s plays in trumps as SUIT PREFERENCE — not count or attitude — some of the time you will be able to work out what to do. If your partner follows under your spade ace with a high spot, you may decide not to play him for an honor in the low suit. This requires partnership trust, I admit. But let me leave you with the thought that the pleasure you would have gotten from your play, had it succeeded, would have far outweighed the pain you actually felt when it did not! |
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at [email protected]. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2009.
April 24th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 10, 2010
| Dealer: South
Vul: Both |
North |
|
| ♠ |
K 10 5 |
| ♥ |
J 7 5 |
| ♦ |
K Q J 10 2 |
| ♣ |
A Q |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
A |
♠ |
6 4 3 |
| ♥ |
K Q |
♥ |
10 9 6 4 3 2 |
| ♦ |
9 7 6 5 4 3 |
♦ |
8 |
| ♣ |
J 10 4 3 |
♣ |
9 7 5 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
Q J 9 8 7 2 |
| ♥ |
A 8 |
| ♦ |
A |
| ♣ |
K 8 6 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 ♠ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
Pass |
| 3 ♠ |
Pass |
4 ♣ |
Pass |
| 4 ♦ |
Pass |
4 ♠ |
Pass |
| 5 ♥ |
Pass |
6 ♠ |
All Pass |
Opening Lead: ♥ King
“Has not (wisdom) come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution?”
— Anthony Trollope
In today’s auction North’s jump-shift followed by a new suit was a cue-bid for spades, since the partnership had the agreement never to jump-shift with a two-suited hand.
That got his side to slam, but pinpointed the heart lead for the defense. Now they were threatening to cash their heart winner on getting in with the spade ace. Obviously, declarer could not draw trumps before trying to discard his losing heart. So he played on side-suits to get his discard, an approach that turned out to present more problems than might have been expected, given the bad side-suit breaks. However, today’s declarer, with careful planning, was equal to the task.
Declarer won his heart ace, unblocked the diamond ace, and went to the club ace to lead a top diamond, ruffed and overruffed. A second club to dummy’s queen let declarer lead a diamond, again ruffed and overruffed.
Now declarer ruffed a club in dummy, led a fourth diamond, again ruffed and overruffed, and finally crossed his fingers before leading the club king and ruffing it in dummy.
Finally, something went right for him: East could not ruff, so declarer was in dummy to lead the fifth diamond and pitch his heart loser. He could now claim 12 tricks.
Notice that declarer has to ruff his winner to get to the board. It does him no good to pitch on the club king since there is still a heart loser left in both hands if he does.
ANSWER: It looks natural to bid two diamonds now, but with such a bad suit it may misdirect partner and get him off to the wrong lead. An alternative is to double. Since one spade was a forcing call, this double cannot be for penalties; instead it suggests values, heart tolerance and some diamond length. It is sometimes referred to as a snapdragon or competitive double.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
A |
| ♥ |
K Q |
| ♦ |
9 7 6 5 4 3 |
| ♣ |
J 10 4 3 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 ♣ |
1 ♥ |
1 ♠ |
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 23rd, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, April 9, 2010
| Dealer: West
Vul: Both |
North |
|
| ♠ |
Q 8 5 3 |
| ♥ |
A K Q 9 4 |
| ♦ |
6 |
| ♣ |
A 9 3 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
A |
♠ |
K J 7 6 |
| ♥ |
J 5 2 |
♥ |
10 8 7 |
| ♦ |
K 10 8 7 5 3 |
♦ |
9 2 |
| ♣ |
Q 8 7 |
♣ |
J 10 5 2 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
10 9 4 2 |
| ♥ |
6 3 |
| ♦ |
A Q J 4 |
| ♣ |
K 6 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
Pass |
1 ♥ |
Pass |
| 1 ♠ |
2 ♦ |
3 ♠ |
Pass |
| 3 NT |
Pass |
4 ♠ |
All Pass |
| |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: ♣ 7
“But if success I must never find,
Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome,
I’ll meet thee with an undaunted mind.”
— Robert Burns
Had West opened the bidding in this deal, North-South might well have reached three no-trump, which would have been relatively easy to play, given the even heart split. As it was, West passed initially and overcalled on the second round. Now South had to play well to land the major-suit game.
West kicked off with a club against four spades. Declarer won in hand and played a spade to West’s ace. Another club was continued, won by dummy’s ace, and three rounds of hearts stood up. One possibility was for declarer to ruff a club and play a trump. However, if spades were 4-1, then East could take two top trumps and play a fourth round of clubs, promoting a fourth defensive trump trick.
Declarer logically assumed that West had six diamonds for the vulnerable two-level overcall, and could surely be counted for three cards in each of clubs and hearts, so it was probable that the spade ace could be taken at face value as a singleton. Accordingly, declarer continued with a fourth heart, East and South discarding diamonds. Declarer could not allow East to discard his other diamond, so he played a diamond to his ace and ruffed a diamond with the spade eight. East was helpless. If he overruffed and played king and another spade, declarer would make the spade queen and a long heart; otherwise, declarer would be in dummy to play another heart and establish one more trump trick.
ANSWER: Normal partnership agreements these days are to play “system on,” meaning that if you play Stayman in response to the opening bid of a no-trump, you play it in response to an overcall in no-trump too. Here, a 4-4 spade fit could very easily play better than no-trump (imagine partner with only ace-third of hearts for example). So bid two clubs and find out.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
10 9 4 2 |
| ♥ |
6 3 |
| ♦ |
A Q J 4 |
| ♣ |
K 6 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
1 ♥ |
1 NT |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
April 22nd, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, April 8, 2010
| Dealer: South
Vul: Neither |
North |
|
| ♠ |
A 3 |
| ♥ |
10 7 |
| ♦ |
A J 9 8 |
| ♣ |
Q J 10 9 7 |
| West |
|
East |
| ♠ |
Q 10 7 6 2 |
♠ |
J 4 |
| ♥ |
J 3 |
♥ |
Q 8 6 5 4 2 |
| ♦ |
7 5 4 |
♦ |
6 3 2 |
| ♣ |
A K 2 |
♣ |
6 3 |
| |
South |
|
| ♠ |
K 9 8 5 |
| ♥ |
A K 9 |
| ♦ |
K Q 10 |
| ♣ |
8 5 4 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 NT |
Pass |
3 NT |
All Pass |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Opening Lead: ♠ 6
“Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.”
— Polybius
At no-trump it is often right to duck tricks early, not late. But how would you play three no-trump today when West leads the spade six?
At the other table, the declarer allowed East’s spade jack to win. He intended to exhaust East of spades so that if he held at least one of the club honors, he would have no spade to play when he gained the lead. East returned a spade to dummy’s bare ace, and when West turned up with both the high clubs, declarer had to go one down.
Unlucky, admittedly, but this line did not seem best to our featured declarer, Omar Sharif. For one thing, if he ducked a club, a heart switch at trick two could have been dangerous. Additionally, the spade six was a fourth-best card and he could therefore tell from the rule of 11 that East held the queen, jack or 10. (He could not hold the spade seven, because West would surely have led an honor from a Q-J-10 combination.) So declarer could block the spades by rising with the ace at trick one, avoiding the risk of receiving a heart switch.
When declarer played on clubs, West won the first round and returned another spade. Sharif allowed East to win with the bare jack, and now could not be prevented from setting up the club suit, ending with an overtrick. I don’t know about you, but this particular play strikes me as exceedingly elegant.
ANSWER: In a competitive auction of this sort, a bid of three clubs would normally be nonforcing facing your partner’s reverse, whatever your agreements might be had the sequence been noncompetitive. To set up a game-force, cuebid two hearts, then raise clubs later. You are definitely going to game, but you have no idea which strain yet.
BID WITH THE ACES
South Holds:
| ♠ |
Q 10 7 6 2 |
| ♥ |
J 3 |
| ♦ |
7 5 4 |
| ♣ |
A K 2 |
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| |
|
1 ♣ |
1 ♥ |
| 1 ♠ |
Pass |
2 ♦ |
Pass |
| ? |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].
|
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