The Bridge Experts
  • Home
  • Articles
  • The Bridge Fellowship
    • Learn from the Best
    • Bridge Can Be Easier
    • General Coaching + Simulations
    • Gift certificates
  • Give us a Hand!

A matter of aesthetics

4/30/2020

0 Comments

 

Author

Marcelo Branco

I have sometimes tried to convince some of my friends to learn Bridge. I believe I am not a very good teacher.
After the first few lessons in which the basic mechanics of the game were introduced, we dealt out hands and the player with more high-card points became declarer -- no auction, no trump suit. His partner became the dummy. And some strange stuff often made me lose a bit of my temper and spoil the lesson.

For example, when I saw declarer handle a suit such as Kx opposite AQJxx by starting with the Queen, or sometimes the Ace, I felt some nausea stir up in my stomach. I interrupted the play and asked: don't you realize that this is an assault against both logic and aesthetics?

By an ironic twist of fate, one day I had Ax opposite KJxxx and had to deal with this suit by starting with a small to the King. This play, apparently so nonsensical, later inspired an article written by Terence Reese, in which he mentioned that it was so weird, and remarking that without that "assault on aesthetics" the contract could not be made.

This is the hand I played and which inspired him:
Picture
The contract is 5 Clubs, and the lead is the Queen of hearts.

​After ruffing the second heart trick, the King of trumps won the next trick. And the Jack of trumps won the following trick, but trumps were 4-1. LHO (the opening leader) had Axxx. To play another trump would be fatal -- LHO would win the Ace and lead another heart, forcing dummy to spend its last trump. The best that declarer could do was to run diamonds, hoping for a 3-2 break there.

But he had to be careful! He had to plan on discarding 4 spades on the dummy in the diamonds, which mean that he had to cash an early spade trick. He also had to keep a late entry to the hand, to protect against the case in which West ruffed a diamond and dummy overruffed.

Play it out without starting with the unnatural play of a small spade to the King to see how declarer fares. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    September 2021
    May 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019

    Categories

    All
    1st FSO
    2020 Brazilian Trials
    2/1
    Adriano Rodrigues
    Advanced
    Bidding Judgment
    Bidding Systems
    Bobby Levin
    Books
    China
    Contested Auction
    Declarer Play
    Defense
    Diego Brenner
    Double Dummy
    Emilio La Rovere
    Ernesto Muzzio
    Expert
    FSO
    Gabriel Chagas
    Giorgio-duboin
    Henrique Salomão
    Inferences
    Intermediate
    Ira Rubin
    Israel
    Jeovani Salomão
    João Paulo Campos
    Marcelo Branco
    Marcos Thoma
    Miguel Villas Boas
    Opening Lead
    Pablo Ravenna
    Paulo Brum
    Pietro Berlusconi
    Poland
    Pressure Bidding
    Raises
    Roberto Barbosa
    Roberto Mello
    Singapore
    Slam Bidding
    Stefano Tommasini
    Sweden
    Tournament Report
    Transfer Responses To 1C
    Trump Maneuvers
    USA
    Video
    World Youth Teams

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Site powered by Page One Agency
  • Home
  • Articles
  • The Bridge Fellowship
    • Learn from the Best
    • Bridge Can Be Easier
    • General Coaching + Simulations
    • Gift certificates
  • Give us a Hand!