ACES ON BRIDGE
“All great men make mistakes.”
— Charles Churchill .....................
Today’s deal comes from an online event, with the auction adapted to a standard base. Both sides competed aggressively to the five-level, and West led a third-and-fifth heart two.
South ruffed and cashed dummy’s top spades, played off the club king and queen, and then started running the suit. East ruffed the fourth and cashed the diamond ace, but declarer could claim the rest since he could shed a diamond on the fifth club.
Both sides had lost their way here. As the play went, East would have done better to discard again on the fourth club, keeping both his diamonds. There was only an undoubled undertrick to be gained by ruffing and trying to cash the diamonds.
Declarer would play a fifth club for a diamond discard, but East would let go of another heart. Stuck in hand, declarer would have to give up a trump, allowing East to win and force declarer with a second heart. Now South would have to lead diamonds from his hand.
Declarer should have seen that once East had followed to two rounds of clubs, he had to have started with 3=6=2=2, assuming the heart two lead was true. Declarer could thus afford to lead a diamond toward the king at once, or even ruff a heart and run the clubs, to catch East in an odd squeeze without the count. If East shed a diamond, declarer could duck out the ace. If instead East reduced to one heart, declarer could afford to exit with a trump, ruff the heart return in dummy and then play a diamond to his king.
ANSWER: A mere overcall of two hearts will not suffice. Instead, make a strong jump to three hearts. One should never preempt over a preempt, but since overcalls show good hands, jumps show hands too good to overcall. Doubling and then bidding a suit shows more in high cards, but not necessarily as long a suit as the jump would promise.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2023, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS