ACES ON BRIDGE

Thinking nothing had been done while anything remained to be done.

— Lucan

This hand arose during the Grand National Teams, played between districts at the 2016 ACBL Summer Nationals, held in Washington, D.C. Craig Biddle of Pittsburgh brought the story to the attention of the bridge journalists. Craig was seated East, and the hero in the South seat was Fred Upton, taking full advantage of a small slip by West.

Play began with an interesting lead problem: Where you or I might have led our singleton diamond, this West led the heart eight, which South allowed to run to his queen. At trick two, Upton tabled the spade nine … and ran it when West forgot to cover — a costly mistake. A second spade finesse, then the spade ace was followed by four rounds of diamonds, ending on the table, West dropping three low clubs. The club 10 went to West’s jack, and the ace brought down the king.

With only black cards left, West was forced to exit with one. Dummy ruffed low, East overruffed with the nine, and

South underruffed with the five. That left East on lead and endplayed in the trump suit to concede the rest.

In submitting the deal, Biddle wanted to applaud Upton for his play but also wanted to don the sackcloth and ashes for his own lapse of judgment in doubling four hearts. He felt that had he not done so, declarer would not have played for the extreme distribution that existed. Then again, if his partner had covered the spade nine, Biddle would have been writing plus 200 rather than minus 790 on his scorecard.

ANSWER: The double of three hearts showed extras, and the question is whether to lead an unsupported ace or look for a passive lead. You can’t be sure that you have a passive lead, but I think the club ace may be your best shot to beat the game; it is fairly unlikely to lose a club trick you would have scored otherwise.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com