The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, January 7, 2010

January 21st, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
2 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead:♥6

“The lingering illness

Is over at last —

And the fever called ‘Living’

Is conquer’d at last.”

— Edgar Allan Poe

The Dyspeptics Club has been reduced to three players in its regular game after East had been forced to take time off. South’s explanation that East’s system had produced a surplus of bile was willingly believed by everyone at the table — especially West, his regular partner.

Accordingly, a distinguished stranger was introduced into the game — and the regular partnerships were broken up. It did not take long for the newcomer to make his mark.

Declaring three no-trump, he received a low heart lead and put in dummy’s nine. When East played the ace, the heart king emerged from South’s hand, along with a faint gurgle that suggested an unwillingness to play that card. His RHO urged him to pick the card up, but South indicated that a played card could not be retracted. The defenders promptly cleared hearts, but declarer could take one diamond finesse when in dummy with the heart jack, and a second after crossing to the club king.

So the contract came home — but try to make the contract if you do not unblock in hearts at trick one! There is no longer a heart entry to dummy, and with neither black suit producing a miracle, eight tricks would be the limit for South. All he could do would be to win the third heart in hand and cross to dummy with a club. He could take a diamond finesse successfully, but since the diamond king would not fall in two rounds, the contract could not be made.

ANSWER: Bid two clubs rather than one spade for two reasons. The first is that bidding a major may excite partner to look for game, and that would not be what you would like to see happen. The second is that you want partner to lead clubs if West ends up declaring either hearts or no-trump, and this is surely the best way to get him to make what looks to be the best lead for your side.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	J 4 2
♥	J 9 4
♦	8 5 3 2
♣	K 7 5

South	West	North	East
			1♦
Pass	1♥	Dbl.	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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The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, January 6, 2010

January 20th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
		1♣	Pass
1♥	Pass	2♥	Pass
4♥	All Pass

Opening Lead:♠10

“The shirt sale and the show window kick at the street with a noise joyous as a clog dancer: the ensemble is a challenge to the ghost who walks on paydays.”

— Carl Sandburg

A few weeks before a recent world championship, representatives from the four English national teams — the open team, women’s team, seniors and juniors — met for a practice session. This was the last board of the weekend.

At one table South responded one diamond to one heart, as I confess I would have done. This resulted in North’s becoming declarer in four hearts. East guessed exceedingly well to lead a club, and that lead beat the contract, as it removed an entry to the South hand, preventing the establishment of the long diamond. Declarer guessed to cash two spades at once to pitch dummy’s club loser, but when West won his diamond ace and played a third spade, the bad diamond break scuttled the contract.

However, at our featured table it was West on lead, and that player chose to lead a spade. Declarer, John Collings for the seniors (who died in 2005), won the spade ace and led a diamond to the 10, king and ace.

West switched to a club. Declarer won with the ace and made the crucial play of ducking a heart. East won and continued a club. Declarer won the king, played a heart to the ace, and then cashed the spade king, discarding a club. A diamond to the queen allowed South to ruff a diamond in dummy, then ruff a club, and ruff another diamond. He could ruff a spade back to hand and lead his last diamond.

East could overruff in diamonds at any stage, but declarer was home, losing just two trumps and a diamond.

ANSWER: Your partner cannot have four hearts (or he would have raised you) or four spades (or he would have bid them over your one-heart response). Your side belongs in no-trump, and it would be mildly pessimistic to raise to only two no-trump, though not entirely unreasonable. But I would simply bid three no-trump and let partner figure out how to make it.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	A K J 4
♥	A 7 5 4
♦	6 2
♣	7 6 3

South	West	North	East
		1♦	Pass
1♥	Pass	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].

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The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, January 5, 2010

January 19th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

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

Opening Lead:♠6

“I get by with a little help from my friends.”

— Lennon and McCartney

When you are declarer in a 5-3 fit and have a four-card suit in the same hand as the long trumps, keep in mind that the fourth round of that suit may be a loser. Today’s hand, from a recent major pairs tournament, found many declarers wanting.

East’s double of four hearts might have got his side to a paying sacrifice, but it was very dangerous on an aceless hand. In fact, the main effect of the double was to warn declarer of the bad break.

West led his singleton spade to the jack and ace. Many declarers who were not doubled attempted to draw trumps, but they inevitably lost two spades, a heart and a club. Equally unsuccessful would be to lead back a spade, trying to ruff a spade in dummy. West can discard two clubs on the spades. Now when East shifts to a top club, declarer can not now arrange both to score dummy’s two club winners and to ruff a spade in dummy.

Scotland’s Willie Coyle was one of the successful declarers. He won the spade lead, played a diamond to the ace, and ruffed a diamond low. He then led a club to the ace and ruffed another diamond low. Next, he played a club to the king and ruffed a third diamond with a high trump. He had three sure trump tricks to come and had taken the first seven tricks, so was assured of his contract.

ANSWER: When your partner bid one no-trump, you sensibly construed this as natural, but the redouble now must be for rescue, suggesting both minors. With three clubs you can happily run to two clubs, although perhaps “happily” is not the right word in this context. As a general rule, all redoubles after a penalty double are for rescue.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	A 10 5 2
♥	A Q J 6 4
♦	10
♣	5 4 2

South	West	North	East
			1♦
1♥	Pass	Pass	Dbl.
Pass	Pass	1 NT	Dbl.
Pass	Pass	Rdbl.	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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The Aces on Bridge: Monday, January 4, 2010

January 18th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♥	Pass	5 NT	Pass
7♥	All Pass

Opening Lead:♦4

“There pass the careless people

That call their souls their own:

Here by the road I loiter,

How idle and alone.”

— A.E. Housman

On this deal from an Indian championship nearly 30 years ago, one table stayed in six hearts, just making. But at our featured table the contract was more ambitious. In seven hearts you might conceivably survive a 4-1 trump break. And since the other table is virtually sure to be in a slam, you need only slightly better than a 50 percent chance to score 13 tricks.

Alas, declarer did not give the hand the attention it deserved. He took the diamond-four lead in hand and played the heart king, followed by the ace. Now the contract could no longer make, because of the bad diamond break. Declarer actually drew the last trump and ruffed a spade to dummy, but had to use his last trump to ruff out the diamonds and thus conceded a club at the end.

As declarer needs only five diamond tricks, he should try to cater for diamonds being 5-1, which is the bad break he can cope with easily. The required play at trick two is to ruff a spade, then play the heart king and ace, and ruff a second spade.

At this point declarer can ruff a diamond back to hand (which will pass off peacefully if diamonds split, or West has the length, and will not cost the contract if West has a singleton diamond and only two hearts). As the cards lie, the heart queen and spade ace will take care of dummy’s losing clubs, and dummy is now high.

ANSWER: You will need partner to have quite a few values to set the hand, and you must try to set up winners before declarer establishes discards on dummy’s diamonds. The right suit to lead is clubs; partner did not overcall in spades, which he might have done if that was the killing lead. And your club cards could help to build winners for partner — which is not true of your spades.

LEAD WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	10 6 5
♥	8 4 2
♦	A 10 4 2
♣	Q 8 2

South	West	North	East
	1♦	Pass	1♥
Pass	2♦	Pass	4♥
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].

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The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, January 3, 2010

January 17th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

Dear Mr. Wolff:

How does the rule of 11 work if your opponents are leading third and lowest (or third and fifth highest)?

— Not Enough Fingers, Durango, Colo.

ANSWER: A fourth-highest lead implies that the leader will hold three cards higher than the one he led: that produces a rule of 11. (Subtract the spot-card value of the card led from 11 to give the number of cards higher than the lead in the other three players’ hands.) On a fifth-highest lead use the rule of 10; on what looks like a third-highest lead, subtract the spot-card from 12.

Dear Mr. Wolff:

Second to speak with ♠ J-9, ♥ A-Q-7-3-2, ♦ 10-3-2, ♣ Q-7-4, I overcalled one club with one heart. The next hand made a negative double and my partner jumped to three clubs, confusing me no end. Afterwards he said this was what he called a “mixed raise.” Have you heard of this call?

— Mixed-Up Kid, Selma, Ala.

ANSWER: A mixed raise is a jump cue-bid in competition, facing an overcall, to show a four-card raise with 6-9 points or so. It is mixed because it has the shape for a pre-emptive raise and the values for a single raise. Since the call has no other useful meaning, it makes good sense to play this convention. Discuss it with your partner first.

Dear Mr. Wolff:

What is the right way to ask for aces and then for kings using Gerber?

— Country Clubber, Naples, Fla.

ANSWER: Remember Gerber applies only after an opening or rebid of one or two no-trump. The call of four clubs gets responses of four diamonds for zero or four, and four hearts for one ace, and so on. Now responder’s bid of five clubs over the response asks for kings with the same scheme of responses. You can by agreement play Sliding Gerber: instead of five clubs, the cheapest bid over the response asks for kings.

Dear Mr. Wolff:

I opened one heart and my partner held ♠ 3, ♥ K-J-4, ♦ A-Q-7-3-2, ♣ A-J-4-3. After he responded two diamonds, I rebid my hearts, which was forcing for one round but not to game. How should he develop his hand now? A raise to three hearts would be forcing in our style.

— Linear Progression, Pleasanton, Calif.

ANSWER: The choice is a complex one. The raise to three hearts endplays you if partner just bids game, while a call of three clubs almost denies hearts this good. Best is to jump to three spades instead. Since two spades is natural and forcing, three spades shows a singleton spade and heart support with slam interest. You hope partner will find a cue-bid of a minor-suit king. If he signs off in four hearts, respect his judgment.

Dear Mr. Wolff:

I have been taught that facing an opening bid of one no-trump, Stayman always promises invitational or better values. Is that really true?

— Gate-Crasher, Hartford, Conn.

ANSWER: I prefer to use the sequence of Stayman followed by a rebid of two hearts over two diamonds as weak with both majors, not invitational. All other sequences after Stayman do indeed tend to promise at least invitational values.

Dear Mr. Wolff:

I did not understand the action taken by my opponent, who had ♠ A-J-7-3-2, ♥ K-4, ♦ A-K-Q-7-3, ♣ 2. I opened two hearts, which was passed around to him. He now bid four diamonds and passed his partner’s call of four spades, which was made on only a three-card suit. Did I miss something here?

— Lost Contact, Cleveland, Ohio

ANSWER: You should have asked the opponents to explain their methods more fully. I assume that when your RHO bid four diamonds, his partner alerted and explained it as Leaping Michaels, showing diamonds and spades with a two-suiter and was prepared to play game facing a weak hand. The jump cue-bid has no useful alternative meaning, so the convention used by your opponents is growing in popularity.

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The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, January 2, 2010

January 16th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

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

Opening Lead:♠Q

“Hope is a subtle glutton;

He feeds upon the fair;

And yet, inspected closely,

What abstinence is there!”

— Emily Dickinson

The spade queen was led against four hearts. Declarer won with dummy’s ace, drew trumps, and the contract appeared to hinge on finding the club queen onside, since declarer surely has three top losers in the side-suits — one spade and two diamonds.

However, giving himself an extra chance, South first tried a low diamond toward dummy. As no honor appeared from West, declarer tried the effect of inserting the eight. When this forced East to take the trick with the king, declarer was home. A low spade from East to West’s 10 was followed by the club 10. South won, then led the diamond queen to knock out the defense’s diamond ace. At this point South had established two winners in his hand, on which to discard dummy’s losing clubs.

Declarer’s diamond play looks illogical, as if he were creating an extra loser for himself. But in practice his maneuver was unlikely to cost since he was going to have two top losers in the suit anyway, whatever he did. Had the diamond eight lost to the nine, South would still have lost only two diamond tricks, and there was always the club finesse in reserve. (Notice there is also a second-degree assumption here: East could not have the ace and king of diamonds as well as the club queen. If he did, given that he also held the spade king, he would surely have opened. So leading to the diamond eight was not likely to cost the contract.)

ANSWER: Your partner has shown a 5-6 hand pattern (or conceivably a strong 5-5 with good clubs and bad spades), and your four trumps are enough to commit the hand to game. With no controls in the red suits, I think a simple jump to five clubs is adequate. (With a first- or second-round red-suit control, you might bid four clubs to give partner space to show his hand.)

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	9 4
♥	Q J 7 6 4
♦	Q 8
♣	K J 5 4

South	West	North	East
		1♣	Pass
1♥	Pass	1♠	Pass
2♣	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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The Aces on Bridge: Friday, January 1, 2010

January 15th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
	3♥	Dbl.	4♥
6♣	All Pass

Opening Lead:♦7

“Learn to tread

Life’s dangerous maze

With unerring Virtue’s clue.”

— Lord Melcombe

Pre-emptive bids are two-edged weapons. They deprive opponents of bidding space, but sometimes they goad opponents into games or slams that they otherwise might not have bid, and help them to play those contracts successfully.

The late Doug Dang of San Francisco, today’s declarer in six clubs, saw a disappointing dummy on the lead of the diamond seven. An ace and the trump queen were missing, and the opening lead suggested that there was also a likely diamond loser.

Dang appreciated that he had to utilize the spade suit. Preserving entries to dummy, he won the lead in hand, then drew trumps with the king and ace, relieved to find the 2-2 break.

One line would now have been to play his spade toward the queen, and if West rose with an honor, take a ruffing finesse against East for the other spade honor. If West did not rise with his putative top spade, declarer could play to ruff two more spades in hand, setting up the suit if West held ace- or king-third of spades.

But the line that Dang chose was to run his spade eight. East won with the 10 and returned a heart. Dang captured this with his ace, then used dummy’s diamond entries to take two ruffing finesses in spades, forcing out both the ace and king and establishing the spade nine in dummy.

Finally, Dang reached dummy with a heart ruff to discard his losing diamond on the established spade nine. Slam made.

ANSWER: Since you have no intention of defending to a major-suit contract at a low level, do not pass the redouble, or you will make the job of describing your hand more complicated. Bid immediately, an action that will show a minimum distributional hand. You must choose between raising your own clubs and (my preference) bidding one diamond to show 4-5 or 4-6 in the minors.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	8
♥	A 9
♦	Q 8 3 2
♣	A J 10 9 8 5

South	West	North	East
1♣	Dbl.	Rdbl.	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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The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, December 31, 2009

January 14th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
		Pass	Pass
1♠	3♥	4♠	5♥
6♠	All Pass

Opening Lead:♥K

“I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything.”

— Abraham Lincoln

For the last day of the year, here is one more deal from “My Favorite 52” by Larry Cohen, published by Master Point Press.

This one is called “Taking No Chances” and Cohen puts you in his seat as South. Focus on just those 13 cards for the time being. In third seat you open one spade, and the next hand pre-empts to three hearts. Partner bids four spades, RHO bids five hearts, and you …? Cohen suggests bidding six spades; the one thing you can be sure of if partner jumps to game facing a passed hand is that you will buy good trumps. And that is really almost all you need.

In six spades the defenders lead a top heart. You ruff, and draw one round of trump, happy to see both defenders follow. Plan the play now.

The correct answer is to draw a second round of trump, cross to your club ace, go back to dummy in trumps, and lead a second club. When East follows suit, what should you do?

The right answer is to finesse, breaking the rule of “Eight ever nine never.” This finesse is a safety play. Either West has no more clubs left, or he has just the bare queen. If the former, your finesse wins; if the latter, West must either return a diamond into your tenace, whereupon South’s third diamond goes on the long club, or give you a ruff and sluff, producing the same result.

ANSWER: When your partner bids on in a sequence of this sort, he is not scrambling for a better fit, but suggesting game-interest, since you have shown a club fit with values. However, in this sequence the fact that he has hearts or heart values makes your hand worse, not better. So sign off in four clubs — your partner will have to bid game on his own if it is going to make.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	A K J 6
♥	10
♦	10 8 3
♣	10 9 5 4 2

South	West	North	East
		1♣	Pass
1♠	2♦	Pass	Pass
3♣	Pass	3♥	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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The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

January 13th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
	2♥*	Dbl.	Pass
3 NT	All Pass

*8-12 points; six hearts

Opening Lead:♥Q

“Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you …”

— Franz Kafka

When a contract appears to depend solely on a finesse, a sound principle states that you should postpone taking that finesse for as long as possible.

Consider today’s deal. With no chance for declarer to develop any tricks in the majors, the three no-trump contract seems to hinge on the spade finesse, but declarer gave himself an extra chance.

West was playing the two-heart call to be close to an opening bid, and he was known to have a six-card suit. Accordingly, declarer won the opening lead of the heart king and decided that the spade finesse could wait. Instead, he immediately advanced a deceptive club five and was charmed to see West follow instinctively with the six. South ducked in the dummy, and now East had to win the trick with the seven. Remarkably, the defenders had missed their last chance to beat the contract.

Declarer won the club return, played four rounds of diamonds ending in hand, and exited with the ace and another club. East had to win and play a spade into dummy’s ace-queen, and that was nine tricks for declarer.

The misdefense was all West’s fault, though I do have some sympathy for him. He should have put in the club 10 when declarer played toward dummy’s king. Then declarer would not have been able to duck a club without letting West on lead to cash all his hearts.

But note that declarer’s play cost nothing. If the club play had not worked, he could always have taken the spade finesse later.

ANSWER: In a contested auction it is acceptable but not mandatory to compete to the two-level after doubling, despite holding a minimum, if you have a fit. However, your diamonds are unremarkable and you are suitable for defense. I’d be inclined to pass and let partner reopen. If you believe takeout doubles always deliver values and suitable shape, then it is up to the responder to take the push here.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	A Q 4 2
♥	7 5 4
♦	K 8 7 5
♣	K 3

South	West	North	East
			1♣
Dbl.	Pass	1♦	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].

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The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, December 29, 2009

January 12th, 2010 ~ admin ~ Comments Off

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

South	West	North	East
		1♦	Pass
1 NT	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead:♥Q

“I also say it is good to fall; battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.”

— Walt Whitman

Today’s deal shows an example of long-term strategy overriding the tactical necessities of a single trick. Sometimes declarer will need to compare strategies in a position where he is the heavy favorite to succeed. But in a deal like today’s, declarer needs instead to find a lie of the cards that will allow him make his game.

When West leads the heart queen against three no-trump, South must count his sure winners carefully. If declarer wins his heart ace, he has a choice of playing on clubs or hearts. As the cards lie, the heart play might work better — but even so, if South collects three heart tricks and two top black-suit winners, he still needs to establish four diamond tricks. Only a 3-3 break will allow him to do that, a line of play that has a one-third chance. Today, so long as the opponents defend competently, they will surely set declarer if he follows that line.

By contrast, if declarer can set up clubs for four tricks, he needs only two heart winners. To succeed, South must take the heart king at trick one, preserving his entry back to hand, and lead the club ace from dummy. He then makes the percentage play in clubs of coming back to his queen. That line succeeds whenclubs are 3-3 and also when the club 10 falls in two rounds — a combined chance somewhat better than 50 percent.

South’s carefully preserved heart entry means that declarer can eventually cross back to hand and cash out the clubs.

ANSWER: Your choice is a simple call of two diamonds, which shows a good hand and a decent suit, but tends to suggest a less balanced hand, or the value bid of two no-trump. That shows 18-20 with spades stopped and is the most accurate way to try for game without going overboard facing a very poor hand. If you had held 15-17, you would have bid one no-trump directly; with fewer points you would pass two clubs.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

♠	A J 6
♥	K 10 3
♦	A K 7 5 3
♣	A 8

South	West	North	East
			1♠
Dbl.	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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