The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦3
Over the last decade the standards in senior bridge have begun to rival the open game, and the world championships are contested at the very highest level. The American and German senior teams have met in the late stages of two world championships; each side has won one match narrowly. When a 64-board match is won by only 7 IMPs, several deals could have reversed the result. But this board from the final session settled the issue.
At both tables, West led a low diamond against five clubs. In the Open Room, John Schermer put in dummy’s 10, then played a spade to his king. West won with the ace and gave his partner a diamond ruff. East now shifted to the spade queen, but declarer ruffed it in dummy and ran the club queen successfully to make his contract.
In the Closed Room, declarer also won with dummy’s diamond 10, but then called for the club queen. When Steve Landen played low smoothly, South became worried that West would win from a singleton or doubleton club king and give his partner a diamond ruff. Then cashing the spade ace would result in one down. So South quite reasonably went up with the club ace and continued with the 10. However, East won with his king, led a spade to the king and ace, and received a diamond ruff for down one.
Plus 600 in one room and plus 100 in the other gave U.S.A. seniors 12 IMPs and the match.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass
This auction suggests that your partner had a penalty double of one spade, probably with a six-card suit, and his failure to go past the two-level should indicate that he does not have enough to drive to game. I'd expect him to be in the range of 7-11 HCP, so I would pass, imagining that no game could be all that good for us.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
