ACES ON BRIDGE
“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”
— Winston Churchill .....................
Tim Leslie of Team Sandfia managed the play accurately at the 2022 Spingold Knockout last summer.
Leslie’s two-spade call might not have done justice to his two working high cards and ruffing value in hearts, but his partner made up for it with an aggressive leap to game.
Leslie won the heart nine lead in dummy. West appeared to be short in hearts, so there was little appeal to ruffing hearts in the South hand, as West would overruff. The spade ace was followed by a spade to the king, allowing for a singleton in the East hand. After a third round of trumps, the heart king saw West show out, at which point things looked bleak. After all, West was all but certain to hold the diamond king on the auction.
Leslie overcame this unfriendly distribution by way of an endplay. He first drove out the club ace and won the passive club return, extracting West’s exit-cards. Then came a diamond to the 10. West won and tried to get out with the club jack, but declarer simply discarded from dummy.
West then had to resurrect the minor-suit winners in the South hand.
The other declarer also received a heart lead, but he gave up a club at trick two. West shifted to a spade, East’s nine forcing the king. Declarer next played a heart up as West pitched a diamond. South now erred when he tried to ruff a heart. West topped the spade seven with his jack and returned a spade to prevent a further heart ruff and set the hand.
ANSWER: It is unlikely that partner has a penalty pass when you hold two honors in West’s suit, so you might simply bid your hearts. However, two hearts would be an underbid, and three hearts may be a tad too much. Perhaps you could double and convert partner’s likely twodiamond bid to two hearts, intending to show extra values.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2023, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS