Hand of the day #145
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff “An umbrella is of no avail against a Scotch...
This conundrum was written by Mark Horton and was originally published in the book, Misplay These Hands With Me - you can find out all about it further down the page.
Playing with an expert partner in a late round of the Spring Fours against a pair who also likes to add to the confusion, I hold as dealer at game all:
Remembering in time that we are not playing Precision, I open One Heart. West enters the lists with Four Diamonds. Partner bids Four Hearts and East Five Diamonds. These exchanges have left our side a trifle short of room to explore, but I bid Six Hearts. Rather surprisingly, this is passed out.
West leads the two of spades and partner produces:
If the hearts break, I have eleven top tricks, so I shall need the spades to come in, or the clubs, or perhaps a squeeze. I play the seven of spades from dummy, but East produces the ten and I win the ace. If East has four trumps, I can pick them up, so I play a heart to the queen, both opponents following. On the ace and king of hearts, East discards the three and six of diamonds.
It looks as if East controls both black suits. To test this, I play a spade to the king, on which West discards a diamond. I now cash the ace and queen of clubs; West discards a diamond on the queen, so his shape is 1-3-8-1. East is therefore 4-1-3-5, and I have him now. I play my remaining trumps, discarding dummy’s spades, to squeeze him in spades and clubs. At Trick 11, I lead a club to dummy’s king, and the last two tricks are won by East’s knave of clubs and queen of spades. Too late I realize that for the squeeze to operate I need to lose one trick, and that by not duck- ing a diamond I have allowed East to retain an exit card.
Post-mortem
There was no excuse. As one trick could safely be lost, it was expedient to play a diamond after drawing trumps, before testing spades or clubs. It was not safe to play a second round of spades first, as East might win the queen of spades if he also held the ace of diamonds. This early reverse costs our team 17 IMPs as the slam has been made at the other table.
The ending should have been a basic simple squeeze position:
On the lead of the seven of hearts, the knave of spades is thrown from dummy, and East has no defense. (For my readers’ benefit I have added the full deal. M.H.)
Deal South
All vulnerable
I had always resisted the temptation to follow in the steps of the mas- ter, but at the first European Open Championships in Menton in 2003 I was reminded of a humorous deal that had been created to exploit a loophole in the Laws (long since plugged.) This is how I presented it — the nom de plume of the ‘author’ being the only ana- gram of Terrence Reese that sprang to mind.
Horton leads the reader through a plausibly logical line of play on each instructive deal, but one that ends in failure. In each post-mortem, the 'expert' realizes how he could have improved on his play, and (usually) have made his contract. The deals are all from top-class events, which prove to be a remarkably fertile source of such material. A book filled with subtle humor and great bridge. Reviews Misplay with Me is the best written bridge book since Reese. I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Charles Lipman
