Undeserved Top
Who said that only grand champions could write bridge articles? A few months ago, Funbridge launched a brand-new format of articles that allow talented players to share their expertise on the deals that inspire them the most. We have the pleasure of presenting you with a captivating article below that was written by one of the members of our community.
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Yoram Aviram is an experienced bridge player and a former member of the Israeli Junior and Open teams with several achievements on the national and international scenes.
Yoram left the game many years ago to focus on family and work (in the field of computerised trading of financial instruments) and switching hobbies from the mind sport of bridge to the physical sport of competitive road cycling.
He returned to his old passion and adopted Funbridge as the platform on which to refresh his old skills.
He is happy to share deals of particular interest with the Funbridge community on the blog.
Undeserved Top
The series tournaments, my bi-monthly challenge to stay at the Elite level, are the toughest place on Funbridge.
On the first deal of the first series tournament, I hold the following cards:
I open 1♦, West passes, partner responds 2♣, East passes and here comes my first decision – should I just rebid my diamonds (forcing) or should I jump to 3♦? I am a little short of high-card points for the jump, but with my extra length, semi-solid suit and prime side values, I decide to emphasise my playing strength and make a jump rebid of 3♦. Partner now bids 3♥ – a stopper, and with my spade stopper, I bid 3NT. Partner now continues with 4♣. This is defined as natural and forcing, i.e. a move towards slam.
With my king-third, I do have great support for partner’s suit, but with my self-sufficient diamond suit, I don’t need to trust the quality of my partner’s suit, so I simply repeat mine with 4♦. Partner now cuebids 4♥. I do feel a bit worried about my previous slight over-bid, but my inner voice, optimistic as ever, argues as follows: “I have an excellent trump suit. The ace of spades and the king in partner’s suit are two prime cards for slam. The singleton heart might prove useful. High-card points might not be needed as partner’s clubs might provide the necessary source of tricks.”
Apparently my inner voice is very persuasive as I decide to take matters into my own hands with a bid of 4NT asking for key cards. Partner responds 5♣ – 0 or 3. Well, if it is 0, we are already too high, so I assume it is 3. We (hopefully) have all the key cards. I can count 7 diamond tricks and 2 major aces. What about the club suit? Partner bid it twice, implying length and certainly good suit quality. If that is indeed the case, not only 7♦, but even 7NT will be on the table! I have no system bid to check for the queen of clubs, but with an optimistic inner voice, who needs fancy system bids? My inner voice clicks the 7NT bid, no one doubles, a spade is led and the following dummy appears.
Ugh! Where is that guaranteed great club suit? Someone deserves a beating! Argine, my inner voice, both… My optimistic inner voice is very quiet now. Argine is the heartless dummy. I am the one who has to play in that horrible contract. By the way, a diamond grand slam wouldn’t be so terrible, only requiring a ruffing finesse against East’s (hoped for) ♥K.
Let’s count: 7 diamond tricks, 2 major aces, 2 top clubs. That is 11. A heart finesse could make 12. For 13, it seems that I need a club miracle. A QJ doubleton would be great. A more likely option is to drop a singleton honour and finesse the other.
Which club honour should I cash first? If it is West with the singleton club honour, that will only provide 1 extra trick (after cashing dummy’s ace, only one finesse on East is possible). In this case, I will need both the club miracle AND the heart finesse. It is better to hope that East holds the singleton honour. Then two finesses on West’s remaining honour will be possible and provide enough club tricks for a total of 13, without needing the heart finesse. So, for the first trick, East plays the ♠Q and I win the ace and continue with the ♣K, eagerly awaiting East’s card. It is the 6. I didn’t pray hard enough. Still 11 tricks, 12 with the heart finesse. Any other chance? I suppose that West could have a doubleton heart with the king. That would be nice… Any other chance? Whenever a trick is missing, we should look for squeeze chances. Here, the spade suit seems to be guarded by both opponents (the first trick indicated that West led from J98…). Clubs and hearts, however, seem to be possible threat suits. If, as I hope, West holds both the ♥K and the club guard, he will be squeezed. It is a small chance, but it is all I have. I play a club from hand, West plays the jack, dummy’s ace wins, East discards a heart. That is good. West is the one guarding the clubs. If he also holds the ♥K, all I have to do is run my diamonds and with the last three cards left, West will not be able to keep both a high club AND the king-third in hearts.
Optimists rejoice! That is the end position before the last diamond is played:
In fact, West, who started with the king-fourth in hearts, had already discarded two, but even if he had kept three, the last diamond would leave him helpless. He would have to either discard his club queen: South’s 4, now high, would be the 12th trick (Note the need to discard dummy’s clubs so as to unblock and keep the lead in South’s hand for the heart finesse) and the heart finesse the 13th. Or he could discard a heart and let his king drop after being finessed for two more heart tricks.
My inner voice awakens. “What a brilliant bid!”
What can I say? Even 7♦ would have gone down as the ruffing heart finesse is off. A top is a top, deserved or not…
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7D there on the same basis, just don’t start with Clubs.
Even worse, you start with the King of Clubs, it’s different squeeze.