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 ACES ARE FOR DEFEATING SLAMS…EVEN GAMES!

A troublesome night for many on defence where many a defensive ace went to bed without winning a trick. Sometimes we wait. Occasionally we under-lead. On this night, we needed to score them quickly. Take this horror:

 

No time for science or Gerber…and no time for a trump lead. Declarer had to draw trumps and overtake the J but the “wonderful” doubleton East held allowed both spades in the North hand to be discarded. Even beating 5 proved troublesome. You just have to hope your partner can help you (East) and start off with a low spade. Otherwise, if you start with your ace and partner discourages, then surely there is just one suit to try?

Why 5? With 2 balanced (yes, that North hand is horribly balanced) hands, you probably want to be in no-trumps. South would turn down your quantitative raise to 4NT.)

Leading partner’s suit provided no joy for the defence on board 24:

 

 

1 was Precision style. 4 was a cue agreeing some suit and 4NT was key card Blackwood with no real agreement between the partnership as to the trump suit. The club lead and early fall of the Q left North with a strong feeling he should have done better. North’s putrid diamonds (symptomatic of the holdings in most hands that evening…10’s and 9’s had been given the night off!) were a strong sign that an urgent attack at trick 1 was needed…and West’s bidding indicated that clubs might not be the suit.

Aces were not the problem on Board 20. However, many declarers made the 9 trick game when their trick tally should only have been 8!

 

Our East here had the hand for the bid as 2 showed 3-8 hcp, 5 spades, and 4 hearts.

No doubt West would have preferred more than the 3 count which went down as dummy but the 9 lead more than made up for partner’s deficiencies! There is a place for defensive leads but when the opposition seem to ignore the major suits, then maybe the time has come to try one..that 9. Declarer wins the first trick. West is going to do great damage to the dummy in cashing clubs immediately. A low diamond, hoping to catch a sleepy defender, might be the answer. In practice, more defenders made than failed in 3NT.

Finally, woe betide any North who failed to cash their A against this 6 slam.

 

5showed one key card. Note, once more, putrid diamonds in the North hand but that was the lead chosen. There should be no escape for North as declarer wins in hand, cashes the A and crosses to dummy’s Q, discards the spade loser on a high diamond before playing a second club. It does not matter if South ruffs then or discards. All the defence will score is a trump trick.

            

                                           

So, aces are nice cards to have, especially when defending at a high level. On this evening, they were no more useful than a string of low diamonds if you did not score them very early in the defence.  

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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