ACES ON BRIDGE

“Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved.”

— James Harvey Robinson

This week’s deals all involve juniors or are from past junior camps. We start with a declarer play problem from the camp in Frostburg, Maryland.

North-South really belong in a partscore — two no-trump is their best-scoring spot, but an aggressive auction like the one shown is reasonable. North is entitled to try for the no-trump game with his quick tricks in the black suits. His three-spade call shows rather than asks.

What would you expect the fate of the contract to be? No matter what West leads, declarer must drive out the diamond ace as soon as possible. Still, as long as the defenders lead or shift to clubs (after a spade lead or heart lead to the ace), declarer cannot make more than eight tricks. Agreed?

All true — but consider East’s problem if his partner leads a heart to trick one. The obvious solution is to go up with the ace; if no honor appears, shift to clubs and hope for the best. Nice logic, but that plan is not foolproof.

Ophir Reshef sat South and, on the auction shown above, was treated to a heart lead. Gauging the situation accurately, he called for a low heart from dummy. When East put up the ace, he dropped the queen, hoping to induce a heart continuation! East sniffed the air suspiciously for a few minutes, then took the bait and returned a low heart, letting Reshef run this to dummy’s nine and collect his 10 tricks — for all the matchpoints. This play won him the Bridge Press award for junior play of the year.

ANSWER: Lead a low spade. It seems probable that declarer is at most a step away from cashing out the diamonds for nine quick tricks. If so, you must set up or cash five of your own. You might advance the heart ace to get a signal from partner, intending to shift to spades if he discourages. This gives you two bites of the cherry. An initial spade lead may put all your eggs in one basket, but it is probably a better basket.

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