The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, July 25, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
2♥	Pass	2 NT	Pass
3♦	Pass	6♥	All Pass

*Medium values, poor suit.

Opening Lead:♣5

“The cat in gloves catches no mice.”

— Benjamin Franklin

This coming week’s deals are all from the 2008 Las Vegas Summer Nationals, marking this year’s tournament in Washington.

Here is Bob Hamman at work in a slam. How would you play six hearts on a club lead? Hamman won the ace, cashed the top hearts, then took the three top spades, pitching a club. He ruffed a club, crossed to a top diamond, and ruffed another club. When he now led a trump to East’s queen, East had to play a diamond, and Hamman’s diamond loser went away. Declarer’s extra chance of finding East with three spades and fewer than three clubs had come in.

His counterpart, Jeff Aker, received the more challenging lead of the diamond seven. With one fewer entry to dummy, declarer had a choice of lines. He could have duplicated Hamman’s line (but now could cope only with a doubleton club with East, not a tripleton).

An alternative was to win the diamond ace and heart king, then play three top spades, pitching a club. He can now cash the club ace and ruff a club, play a heart to the ace, ruff a club, and exit with a trump, reaching Hamman’s position. Both lines work today, but for what it’s worth, Aker played Hamman’s line. If West had led from a doubleton diamond and had only one heart — the relevant position for the endplay to work — then he felt clubs were quite likely to be 5-2 and additionally spades might have been 6-2.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, July 24, 2009

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

 

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

Opening Lead:♣K

“Too late, too late! Ye cannot enter now!”

— Alfred Lord Tennyson

In four hearts, South ruffed the lead of the club king in dummy and paused for reflection. One slim chance for declarer would be to pin everything on the spade finesse and a 2-2 heart break. He could overtake the heart queen with the ace, take a spade finesse, cash the spade ace, ruff a spade high to establish the suit, and play a heart to dummy, hoping that would draw both outstanding trumps.

South preferred to play a diamond at trick two, which East won with the king to switch to a trump. Declarer won in the dummy and played a second diamond. West won with the queen and had no further trump to play. Whatever he did, declarer could come to six trump tricks in his hand, two club ruffs in the dummy, and the ace and queen of spades.

Curiously, when declarer played a second round of diamonds, best defense would have been for East to ruff in. He then plays his last trump, removing the last trump from dummy. Alas for the defense, look what happens to West when declarer wins in hand and plays off his trumps.

In the six-card ending, South leads out his penultimate trump, his other four cards being two spades and two clubs. Dummy has four spades and two diamonds. West must keep three spades and also two diamonds to prevent that suit from being ruffed out, and so must pitch his club. Declarer’s J-10 of clubs can be built into a trick, and the spade finesse sees him home.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, July 23, 2009

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

 

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

Opening Lead:♣Q

“Civilizations break down and go to pieces if and when a challenge confronts them which they fail to meet.”

— Arnold Toynbee

From a pair game in the finals of a recent U.S. Nationals came a deal misplayed by almost every declarer who encountered it. Can you do better? You may want to consider it as a single-dummy problem by covering up the East and West cards.

Having been pushed to three spades, how should you play this contract on the lead of the club queen?

Assume from East’s takeout double that the most likely lie of the cards includes a 4-1 trump break onside. If so, you have eight easy tricks but no comfortable route to reduce your trumps, a necessary move to achieve the trump coup that will allow you to score an extra trump trick in dummy.

The right line (which combines deception and technique) is to duck the first club smoothly. There is no way the defenders will be able to work out what is going on in this suit. Win the expected club continuation and play a third club to pitch a diamond from dummy. Now lead a spade to finesse dummy’s 10, then play a diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond. After a spade to the ace (as East discards), dummy is down to three trumps. You can now ruff a diamond and exit with a heart. The defenders can cash three rounds of that suit, but must then lead a plain card, allowing the spade K-J to take the last two tricks.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
3♠	Pass	5 NT	Pass
7♠	All Pass

Opening Lead:♥Q

“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain — that which they immediately recognize and desire.”

— G.W.F. Hegel

These days the grand slam force is rarely seen because the call of five no-trump is more often used to ask partner to pick a slam. But a jump facing an opening bid still retains its original meaning: bid the grand slam with two top honors.

How would you play today’s seven-spade contract on a heart lead? The lead is inconvenient in that it has taken out one of the late entries to dummy, and you will need to set up the clubs to make your contract.

A simple line would be to win and draw trumps, then play three rounds of clubs, ruffing the third. This line needs nothing but 3-2 clubs or a singleton club queen, but today you would be out of luck. An improvement to this line would be to draw just one round of trumps with the king before playing on clubs in case one hand had both black-suit singletons, but this would not help you today.

The winning line is to realize that you have the opportunity to use your discard on the top heart in dummy to greater effect. What you should do is cash the two top hearts and pitch a club from hand. Now you can take just one top club, ruff a club high, and draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy. Then ruff another club high in hand, draw the outstanding trumps, and cross to the diamond ace to discard your diamonds on the clubs in dummy.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
2♣	3♥	Pass	4♥
4♠	Pass	Pass	5♥
Dbl.	Pass	5♠	All Pass

Opening Lead:♥A

“He seems so near and yet so far.”

— Alfred Lord Tennyson

How should you plan the play in five spades? If trumps are no worse than 3-1, your contract will be easy. You just draw trump, ending on the table, and run the diamond 10. You will lose at most one club and one diamond.

The situation becomes trickier if trumps split 4-0. After you ruff the heart ace and play a trump to the queen, you may lose control if West has a guarded diamond queen since you have to surrender early tricks in both clubs and diamonds. The defenders will force you each time they gain the lead by returning a heart. You will then end up with fewer trumps than East and finish a trick short. Is there anything better?

East appears to have some values for bidding on to the five-level, so play him for the club ace. Cross to the spade queen at trick two to find the bad news, and at trick three play a low club toward your hand. If East plays low, your king wins the trick. You can now draw trumps and give up a diamond trick. You make six trumps, four diamonds and a club.

What happens if East plays the club ace and forces you with another heart? After you ruff, cash the club king and cross to dummy with the trump jack to play dummy’s two club winners, throwing low diamonds from hand. Then, after drawing trumps, you cash the ace and king of diamonds for the 10th and 11th tricks.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Monday, July 20, 2009

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

 

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

Opening Lead:♣6

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

— Shakespeare

When this hand came along in a World Championship pair event, some declarers failed to follow the advice given by every bridge teacher to every beginner: “Before touching a card from dummy — even a singleton in the suit led — plan the play of the whole hand.”

Every West led the club six against four spades, and most Souths inserted dummy’s nine. East played the queen, South won with the king, but now had no quick entry to dummy for the spade finesse. She could try a club toward the ace, but West was able to ruff, and the game ended two down.

At one table, though, the bidding and lead were identical, but declarer paused for thought at the critical moment.

Recognizing the lead as likely to be from shortage, South rose with dummy’s club ace to play the spade queen, catering to East’s holding the guarded spade king. When this held, a low spade collected the missing trumps. Eventually, one of dummy’s clubs went on the diamond queen, and a subsequent successful finesse of the club jack landed the game.

The key to this deal is to work out that West’s opening club lead is far more likely to be from shortage than from length. If so, there is no need to take an immediate club finesse. You can do that after drawing trumps since you can always reach dummy with a diamond ruff.

LEAD WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, July 19, 2009

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If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at [email protected]. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2009.

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, July 18, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
1 NT	Pass	2♣	Pass
2♠	Pass	6 NT	All Pass

Opening Lead:♣9

“Ignorance itself is without a doubt a sin for those who do not wish to understand; for those who, however, cannot understand, it is the punishment of sin.”

— St. Augustine

When this hand arose in a recent Cavendish pairs, quite a few of the world’s best players lost themselves some money by their ignorance of a key suit-combination.

If you are going to play slam, six clubs might be best here, but six no-trump looks normal enough. How should you play the spades? It looks natural to lead out the ace and follow up with the 10. When East plays low, you should rise with the queen. That picks up the doubleton jack offside. However, when the suit is 3-3, it is a blind guess whether to play low or to rise with the queen against competent opponents. Bear in mind that if West started life with the doubleton king, there is no winning option. You have to lose two tricks, whatever you do next.

So far so good, and most people’s analysis would stop there. But actually the best play in the suit does not start with cashing the ace, but with running the queen! If the suit is 3-3, we know that it is a complete guess as to how to play the suit. If the suit is 4-2, you can pick up three of the four honor-doubletons by leading the queen. No other play caters to that.

It is only fitting that Fred Gitelman, author of BridgeMaster, which features this precise combination in its training section, was one of the declarers in six no-trump. He made the right play and was rewarded when the cards cooperated.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Friday, July 17, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
	2♥	3♥*	Pass
3♠	Pass	6♠	All Pass

*Game-forcing

Opening Lead:♦J

“An optimist is a guy who has never had much experience.”

— Don Marquis

In today’s deal you can hardly blame North for getting carried away when you admit to a spade suit. And since the club queen on its own might be enough for slam, he can hardly expect you to cooperate intelligently in any slam venture.

Let’s look at the prospect for making six spades when West starts with the diamond jack. The simple hope is to find trumps 2-2 and the heart ace onside, but in the real world, West’s pre-empt when vulnerable will guarantee possession of the heart ace.

Another chance is to find the Q-J of clubs doubleton. Is there any other way to avoid a club loser? Only if you can somehow find a home for dummy’s clubs. And is there any hope of that? The answer, rather surprisingly, is yes, but only if you are careful about it.

Start by winning the diamond, drawing trumps, then cashing the second top diamond and the two top clubs. Assuming the missing club honors do not both fall, you lead dummy’s singleton heart and put up an honor from hand. West must win this trick with the heart ace and cannot play a diamond or you ruff in hand and pitch dummy’s clubs on this trick and your remaining top heart.

Equally, if West leads a heart, whether a big or a small one, you run the lead around to your hand, then establish a second discard from the heart spots while you still have the spade re-entry to your hand.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].

The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, July 16, 2009

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

 

South	West	North	East
	1 NT	Dbl.	Pass
Pass	2♣	Pass	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♠	All Pass

Opening Lead:♣K

“I can see with half an eye.”

— Miguel Cervantes

In today’s deal from the Dyspeptics Club, neither North nor South did anything unreasonable to reach a thin game, but it would have required South to find a good play to bring home 10 tricks. Maybe North was optimistic in accepting South’s invitation to game with such bad trumps and a possibly wasted club holding.

Defending to four spades, West cashed two top clubs, then paused for some while, trying to remember if East had echoed in clubs. Eventually he played a third club. Declarer ruffed in dummy and saw the danger of taking a trump finesse. If the cards lay as they actually did, West could win and lead a fourth club, letting East promote a trump trick for his partner by ruffing with his spade nine.

So South played the ace and queen of spades, a good try but not good enough. West won his king and switched to a heart. Declarer tried to ruff the third heart back to hand, but West could overruff for down one.

North is generally South’s sternest critic, but even he was hard-pressed to berate South too sternly on this occasion. Nonetheless, South had gone halfway down the road to success. It was a pity that he had not worked out that he needed to cash the two top hearts before playing the ace and queen of spades. That way, West must put declarer back in hand to draw the last trump, and the contract comes home.

BID WITH THE ACES

South Holds:

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].