The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 25, 2009

May 9th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 25, 2009 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♠K

“Heroism feels and never reasons and therefore is always right.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

This hand, which arose in the 2004 USA Spingold teams semifinals, appeared in Tim Bourke and David Bird’s book, “Defending Suit Contracts.”

Both Wests, Lorenzo Lauria of Italy and Bob Hamman of the U.S. team, opened one spade. After two passes the Souths introduced their heart suits. The contract at both tables was four hearts.

Both Wests made their natural lead of a top spade, and each received a count signal from East, indicating an initial holding of three spades. You see three defensive tricks — two top spades and the ace of clubs — but where will the setting trick come from?

At first you might think it is the diamond suit, should partner have the king. East, however, was unable to muster up a response in spite of holding three-card spade support, so the more likely candidate for the diamond king is South. Even if partner has the diamond queen and declarer has king-third, declarer’s slow diamond loser would disappear on dummy’s clubs.

Both Lauria and Hamman came to the conclusion that their only hope was for partner to hold exactly two clubs. So, at trick two, they both brilliantly switched to a low club, away from the ace. Now, if declarer played a spade preparatory to ruffing the third spade in dummy, ace and another club gives East a ruff. And if declarer draws trumps before playing a second club, West would rise with the ace to cash two more spades.

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, April 24, 2009

May 8th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  3 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
			3♣
Dbl.	Pass	4♣	Pass
4♠	Pass	5♣	Pass
5♦	Pass	5♥	Pass
6♦	Pass	6♠	All pass

Opening Lead: ♣8

“From each according to his faculties, to each according to his needs; that is what we wish sincerely and energetically.”

— Michael Bakunin

Consider today’s six-spade contract, where, curiously, it is far more important to find the diamonds behaving than to find the trumps splitting.

You win the opening club lead and draw trumps in four rounds, as East pitches three clubs. Next come the three top diamonds. All is well when the suit splits, and West lets go of a heart on both the third and fourth round of the suit. What now?

Consider that at this point in the deal, you have an inferential count of East’s hand: seven clubs, three diamonds and one spade; thus two hearts. On the auction either defender could have the heart king. In practice you should try to follow a line that will succeed against West if he has the heart king since he has five hearts compared to East’s two. Leading to the heart queen only succeeds against king-doubleton in East.

What you must do is to take your life in your hands, cashing your remaining club honor to set up a potential club winner for East, then lead the heart eight from the board, intending to run it to West. That player will win it cheaply and be endplayed, forced to lead away from the heart king at trick 12.

You might reasonably ask what you should do if East covers the heart eight with the jack, as he might do in the diagramed hand. The answer is that you should play West for the 10 by finessing on the way back.

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, April 23, 2009

May 7th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Thursday, April 23, 2009 

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

 

South	West	North	East
	Pass	1♦	Pass
1♥	Pass	3♦	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♥	All pass

Opening Lead: ♣10

“Panics in some cases have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt.”

— Thomas Paine

Many beginners find it easier to learn the basics of card play than of bidding. Bidding is an imprecise science at the best times, and it is not only beginners who occasionally land in silly contracts because they have bid badly.

In today’s auction South should have bid three no-trump, not three spades. North could not have four spades, so introducing a weak suit here was pointless. The call should be used to show values in spades, asking North to bid three no-trump with a club stopper.

It is important not to panic when the contract you find yourself in is far from ideal, because a clear head can often find a way to succeed. The final contract was ridiculous, three no-trump or five diamonds being much superior, but curiously, on the lie of the cards, four hearts cannot be defeated on any lead.

At the table West led the club 10, thinking from the bidding that perhaps North and South were short of club stoppers. Declarer won the club queen and played the heart king. Suppose East wins and returns a heart. Declarer wins in the dummy and plays diamonds from the top. East has to follow helplessly, so declarer ruffs the fourth diamond with the heart nine. He then cashes the heart queen, followed by the ace and king of clubs and ace of spades. That makes 10 tricks: one spade and three tricks in each of the other suits. The defenders take their spade and trump tricks together at the end.

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, April 22, 2009

May 6th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1♠	3♦	3♠	Pass
4♠

Opening Lead: ♦K

“There are only two qualities in the world: efficiency and inefficiency; and only two sorts of people: the efficient and the inefficient.”

— G.B. Shaw

On this deal from the 2002 World Bridge Championships, Margaret James was one of a very small number of players to make her vulnerable game.

Playing a five-card major system, a light major raise made it easy to reach game.

West led the diamond king, which declarer perforce won in hand. When there seems to be a danger from a forcing defense it is usually a good idea to start developing some tricks in the side-suits. Accordingly, at trick two declarer led her heart eight, which ran to East’s king. Declarer ruffed the diamond return in hand and cashed her ace-king of trumps. When West showed out, it didn’t matter. Declarer played another heart to the queen and ace, ruffed a diamond back to hand, unblocked her heart winner from hand, and cashed the ace and king of clubs and dummy’s heart jack. She now had 10 winners and East’s two spade winners and West’s club winner all fell on the last two tricks.

Note that at trick two declarer does best to lead the heart eight from hand (not the 10) because she does not want West to cover. Had declarer advanced the 10 it looks normal for West to cover, and now declarer needs to play very well to succeed. She must win the heart ace and ruff a diamond, then take just one top trump before playing a second heart.

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, April 21, 2009

May 5th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♥	Pass	2NT	Pass
4NT*	Pass	6♠	All pass

*Quantitative, not Blackwood
 

Opening Lead: ♦Q

“’Danger! What danger do you foresee?’

Holmes shook his head gravely. ‘It would cease to be a danger if we could define it,’ said he.”

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Earlier this month we looked at a deal from Eddie Kantar that featured avoiding a possible fourth-round loser in a side-suit, where dummy was relatively short of trumps. In today’s deal you should avoid taking a finesse for the trump queen if it might preclude ruffing a possible fourth-round loser in dummy.

In six spades you have two concerns: the trump suit and the fourth heart. But if you successfully play for a 3-2 trump split — which represents a two-thirds chance — you are home free.

Win the opening lead and cash the spade ace-king, leaving the queen at large. Now attack hearts. Cash the three top hearts. If the spade queen trumps one of your heart winners, that will not present a problem, since you can still ruff your heart two with dummy’s mighty spade four.

By contrast, if you take the trump finesse and it loses, you may not be able to ruff your fourth heart safely. The player with the doubleton heart may have three spades, or, if you cash the spade ace before finessing, the defenders may be able to play a third round of trumps and kill the ruff in dummy. (Imagine today’s West with four hearts instead of two. The trump finesse is now fatal to declarer.)

Note that if trumps are 4-1 onside, you can cross back to dummy to finesse in trumps on the third round. You will still make if hearts break, or if you can arrange some red-suit pressure.

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, April 20, 2009

May 4th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

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

 

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	3♠	Pass
4♠	All pass

Opening Lead: ♥Q

“Time present and time past

And time future contained in time past.”

— T.S. Eliot

In today’s deal, North does not have quite enough to drive to game, but does have enough for a limit raise, suggesting four trumps and about 10-11 points. South may be minimum in high cards, but he has decent controls and a singleton. It is generally good strategy to bid game here unless you are both minimum and balanced.

Now you must consider the play on a top-heart lead. Between the two hands there is one diamond loser and three potential club losers. What South discards on the second top heart might appear to be irrelevant; not so.

The third club loser can be eliminated if the opponents can be forced to lead clubs for you. To accomplish this, declarer must hope for a 2-2 spade break, and thus be able to strip both his hand and dummy’s of all hearts and diamonds. The best line is to discard a diamond on dummy’s second high heart, then ruff a low heart in his hand. Now he can draw two rounds of trumps and ruff another low heart, so long as the trumps split. Then he can endplay both opponents by leading ace and another diamond. Whichever opponent wins the diamond lead must lead a club or yield a ruff-sluff.

If the trumps do not split, South can always lead clubs himself, hoping for a favorable position (ace-king in one hand, or a singleton or doubleton honor in clubs, most likely in the hand long in spades).

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, April 19, 2009

May 3rd, 2009  ~  admin  ~  2 Comments 

For details of Bobby Wolff’s autobiography, The Lone Wolff, contact [email protected]. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, please leave a comment at this blog. Reproduced with permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc., Copyright 2009. If you are interested in reprinting The Aces on Bridge column, contact [email protected].

The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 18, 2009

May 2nd, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Saturday, April 18, 2009 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♥Q

“What is called a sincere work is one that is endowed with enough strength to give reality to an illusion.”

— Max Jacob

“Play the card you are known to hold” is the theme of today’s deal, which comes from “Deceptive Play,” by David Bird and Tim Bourke.

In three no-trump, South captures West’s heart queen with the king and leads a low club to the 10, which holds, East following with the five. From West’s perspective, what is the club position? There is no way that a sane South would be finessing the 10 on the first round if he had the king. Therefore a low doubleton is South’s likely holding. This means that East began life with club K-5 and has done extremely well to hold up the king. (Remember: your partner is allowed to play well, on occasion.)

Now declarer returns to the spade ace in hand and leads another club. If West follows with the eight, having contributed the two on the first round, South will be justifiably suspicious. As declarer cannot cope with West holding K-J-8-2 of clubs, and the jack would already have appeared had West’s initial holding been club K-J-2, declarer’s best chance to play the suit without loss may be to rise with the ace, dropping East’s king — much to East’s displeasure.

West is obliged to contribute the jack on the second round of clubs — the card he is inferentially known to hold — to foster the illusion that his initial club holding was K-J-2. It is then extremely unlikely that South would rise with dummy’s ace.

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, April 17, 2009

May 1st, 2009  ~  admin  ~  Comments Off on The Aces on Bridge: Friday, April 17, 2009 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♠9

“Parliament must not be told a direct untruth, but it’s quite possible to allow them to mislead themselves.”

— Norman Tebbit

I have never heard any decent player claim that the game was too easy for him. But many of us believe that not only is the game too hard, but it is getting harder all the time. Take today’s deal, for example. It is not straightforward, but part of its difficulty is that it LOOKS easy!

The question is how you would play four hearts, looking just at the North and South cards, on the lead of the spade nine.

In real life you would not know who had short spades, if anyone. So you would win the opening lead and knock out first one trump honor then the next. If the defenders managed to take a spade ruff, you would hope it was with the ace or king of hearts. If that were not the case, you would have to fall back on the diamond finesse. If that lost, you could justifiably claim to be unlucky.

But you can do much better. Win the opening spade lead in hand and play three rounds of clubs, ruffing in hand. Then play a trump; East will win and give his partner a spade ruff as you follow with a small spade. But now, after West has cashed his heart king, what can he do? If he leads a club, you pitch a diamond from dummy, ruff in hand, and have the rest. If he plays a diamond, you no longer need the finesse.

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, April 16, 2009

April 30th, 2009  ~  admin  ~  1 Comment 

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

 

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

Opening Lead: ♥Q

“Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing’s so hard but search will find it out.”

— Robert Herrick

A rubber bridge player at the Dyspeptics Club never really knows what he is letting himself in for. Yet he can always rely on South to hold far more than his share of the high cards, though according to him, it is just because he gets more out of them.

In fact, in today’s deal North was an outsider. With a difficult call at his third turn, he suggested that he had three-card spade support, and that was enough to get South into the stratosphere via Blackwood.

On the lead of the heart queen, South won in hand, unblocked the club ace, then took the spade ace and king. Next, he accurately cashed the club king, pitching a heart, and ruffed a club, preparing to clear the trumps and claim the rest. However, West overruffed and, after prolonged thought, shifted to a diamond. South had no choice but to run this to his hand; when his diamond queen won, he drew trumps and took the balance.

While North was congratulating his partner, West made the mistake of saying there was nothing he could have done to set the slam. That gave East the chance to tell him that while there was nothing HE could have done, anyone who understood bridge would have prevailed on defense. Do you see why?

When in with his trump trick, West must shift to the diamond KING. This dislodges dummy’s entry, and eventually the defenders collect a diamond or trump trick whatever South does.

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].