aces on bridge bobby wolff

“In our tenure on this planet, we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt.”

— Carl Sagan

On this deal from the Cavendish pairs, it was demonstrated that the downsides of opening light are not limited to getting too high once in a while. Where I was watching, Amos Kaminski passed the South hand, and a transfer auction to four spades saw Piotr Gawrys (North) have no problems on a club lead.

By contrast, both Geir Helgemo and Fred Stewart opened the South hand, the former fueled by youthful exuberance, and the latter by a strong club system. After a game-forcing trump raise, both played four spades on a diamond lead to the jack.

It looks normal to go after clubs now as East, doesn’t it? Think again — there is no hurry to lead clubs.

Partner’s tricks in that suit won’t go away, so now is the time to look for something better.

Both Alain Levy and Roy Welland, at their respective tables, found the devastating trump shift. Declarer took his ace (if he finesses, he is sunk on a second diamond play), but in doing so, lost his only fast entry back to hand.

Each South now tried the club king from hand, but both Wests continued the good work on defense. They ducked the first club, won the second and played a second diamond. Declarer rose with the ace and now only needed to return to hand in order to discard the diamond loser on the clubs.

So they played the heart ace and king, and ruffed a heart high as their hand entry. No such luck! The defense could overruff and cash the diamond king for down one.

ANSWER: The sensible way to play in this auction (if not using three clubs as the Wolff signoff ) is to make all calls forcing, except a pass. So, you can bid three hearts to show five hearts and a forcing hand. If your partner had opened one club, you might have simply raised to three no-trump, but that small doubleton spade is a danger signal.