ACES ON BRIDGE
If a man is trained, purely and simply, to be expert and contented in a particular task, he will not innovate; Freud would have remained an anatomist, Marx a philosopher, Darwin a field-naturalist. — John Passmore
This hand, from a 2005 Bermuda Bowl meeting between Italy and Netherlands features an expert defensive play by Lorenzo Lauria that was missed in the other room.
Against four spades, Louk Verhees started with the heart 10, ducked all around. He continued with the heart queen, ruffed by declarer, Norberto Bocchi. At trick three, Bocchi led a low club to dummy’s 10. Jan Jansma, East, won his king and exited with the diamond jack, taken by declarer with the ace. Bocchi now cashed the diamond king and ruffed a diamond with the spade jack. There was nothing the defense could do. Declarer would eventually discard his losing diamond after repeating the club finesse.
As it was, even this was not necessary when East did not overruff. He was eventually thrown in with the spade queen to lead into dummy’s tenaces, and Bocchi had 10 tricks.
At the other table, Simon de Wijs also played four spades from the South seat. The play went along similar lines, but when de Wijs led a club, Lauria, West, put in the queen, second hand high, to scuttle declarer’s communications. De Wijs could still have succeeded at double-dummy (by winning the club ace, cashing the top diamonds and throwing East in with a club), but without a peek, he played to ruff a diamond in dummy and finished one down. That was 10 IMPs to Italy, who won the round robin, finishing a match ahead of second place, while the Netherlands failed to qualify for the knockout stage.
ANSWER: Bid four spades.You should drive to game with your powerful two-suiter. Even a completely unsuitable minimum will give you play for four spades, while a good hand might even make a slam! It would be slightly too much to splinter with four hearts, though — give yourself a minor-suit queen, and you might take a more aggressive position.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com