Hand of the day #281
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff In action here against France in the McConnell...
This conundrum was written by Paul Thurston and was originally published in Bridge at the Breakfast Table - you can find out all about the book further down the page.
Let’s warm up for the week with a defensive problem first presented by Eddie Kantar. Deceptively simple, the solution often eludes most defenders.
Opening lead: ♦Q
Imagine you are East — cover the West and South hands but keep an eye on the bidding. One of the real-life difficulties in defending high-level contracts is that you’re never quite sure how much you can trust the auction.
In the given auction, South’s black-suit cuebids and follow-up jump to the five-level might be construed as seeking a control in the unbid diamond suit. But you’re quickly disabused of that notion as partner’s lead gets ruffed.
Both that Trick 1 ruff and the sight of dummy might have altered your thinking: South must have been seeking good trumps with his invitation and North apparently thought his were good enough!
While your disappointment at scoring no diamond trick is ebbing, South leads a trump to dummy’s queen and your ace. Too late!
Declarer will win any return and draw precisely one more round of trumps before testing spades. When they split 4-2, South’s secondary chance — that the hand with long spades has the last trump — comes in as he’s able to ruff his fourth spade in dummy.
While you might not have been able to foresee all that happening, you could and should have realized that any high honor in a black suit in partner’s hand would doom the slam and that the only way you might be able to affect the outcome is by controlling the trump suit — duck the ace on the first round!
If South plays a second round, win and play a third while if he abandons trumps, partner will be able to ruff the third round of spades.
Many Canadians do indeed get their daily dose of bridge ‘at the breakfast table’ — by reading Paul thurston’s daily column in the National Post, one of only two newspapers in circulation throughout the whole of Canada. This book is a collection of some of his best and most interesting articles — tips, oddities, and just plain interesting deals and stories.
