ACES ON BRIDGE
“If you make a great number of predictions, the ones that were wrong will soon be forgotten, and the ones that turn out to be true will make you famous.”
— Malcolm Gladwell
Richard Probst, partnering David Gold, showed good card-reading skills on this deal, which was enough to earn him a nomination for the International Bridge Press Association junior award. The hand was reported by David Bakhshi.
East’s no-trump opening was weak, showing 12 to 14 points. Probst overcalled two spades, spades and a minor, which Gold raised directly to game.
West led the club jack to the queen, king and five. East continued with the club ace, and then switched to a low trump to West’s queen. Back came another trump, won in dummy. The opening bid marked East with the heart queen once West had produced 3 high- card points, so Probst led the heart jack from dummy.This was covered by the queen and king, and declarer drew the last trump.
He now crossed back to the heart ace, and led the eight, East playing low smoothly. But Probst got it right, running the eight, reasoning that East would be far more likely to have covered the jack earlier with queen10-fourth than queen-third.
This play to make the game was needed for a flat board; the English East at the other table, after cashing two clubs, had switched to a heart into the ace-jack.
The defenders still had a chance after declarer won the jack and unblocked the heart king. Declarer now naturally played trumps from the top, and after West won his queen, he needed to shift to a diamond but instead played a club. Now South ran his spade winners and squeezed East in the red suits.
ANSWER: Double for takeout. Get your hand off your chest as quickly as you can. You could miss a game by passing if partner has a moderate hand with unsuitable spade length for balancing. If you did not have four hearts, the upside of acting would be smaller, since reaching the most likely game — four hearts — would be somewhat less likely.
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