Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ACES ON BRIDGE
Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten. — Neil Gaiman
In today’s deal, the Three Little Pigs were all declarers in three no-trump on broadly similar auctions, but with very different results.
At each table, East and West bid and raised spades, but North put his partner into three no-trump. Both the spade two and nine make sense on opening lead here — I prefer the nine. In order to succeed, South must carefully decide on a way forward.
The first little pig cashed his three spade winners, pitching a heart and club from dummy. When he played on diamonds, East could win and cash out the spades, then the hearts, for down four.
The second little pig was more cautious. He won the first spade and played on diamonds at once from the top, expecting the defenders to continue spades. But West discarded a spade and a club on the second and third diamonds. East shifted to the heart king, and that let West take the top hearts and exit in clubs, for down one.
The third little pig found the golden mean between cashing spades and abandoning them. He cashed precisely one more spade, discarding a club, then led a diamond to the jack. If that held the trick, the diamonds would run; if it lost, the diamond eight would serve as a re-entry to the South hand to allow him to cash the last spade winner.
Have you noticed what might happen if South finesses in diamonds at trick two? At double-dummy, East can duck the first diamond. Now declarer has no re-entry to his hand and only eight tricks.
ANSWER: Despite your sixth spade, you essentially have a run-of-the-mill overcall with no extra values or shape. The question is whether to rebid two spades or pass the auction to your partner to describe his hand. It feels right to pass to me; but give me the spade jack instead of a small spade, and I’d rebid two spades. If the redouble shows two spades, bidding two spades now seems reasonable. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at
bobbywolff@mindspring.com