Houston Chronicle

ACES ON BRIDGE

- By Bobby Wolff

I’m not going to specify precisely where Australian Michael Courtney falls on the spectrum of genius and madness, but he deservedly won the 2010 Internatio­nal Bridge Press Associatio­n Declarer Play of the Year award for his play on today’s deal. Courtney is a true maverick, capable of making extemporan­eous plays that other experts would never see — of course, not all of them are successful, but that is part of his charm. Against three no-trump, West led the spade six, and Courtney made the natural but unsuccessf­ul play of covering with the 10. The first trick went to the jack and king, and Courtney now took the losing diamond finesse. East thought he should cash his top heart winners before returning a spade, in case declarer had the spade ace and not the heart queen, so he led the heart king. West wanted to be sure that East would not expect him to have the heart queen, so he dropped the jack on this trick. Courtney knew from the Rule of 11 that East must hold another spade, so he could see that his priority was to keep East from leading another spade. Accordingl­y, when East continued with the heart ace, Courtney dropped the queen — leaving hearts wide open, as well as spades — but now West unblocked the 10, believing his partner must have the heart nine. East was now convinced that West must have started with J-10-9-fourth of hearts, and thus continued with a third heart. Courtney won his nine and claimed nine tricks.

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