..A peril at the races
I've written before that at the table no-one rings an alarm bell, but well, sometimes they do. If there's a defensive holding that should always sound a warning it's being stuck with a singleton ace. I was a just a kibitzer when this hand was played. It's true the match was lost and won by this time and the bidding was light-hearted and the defence distracted, but even so…
- A3
- 3
- K652
- KQJ943
- Q8
- KQJ2
- AQ987
- A5
- KJ765
- A10954
- 104
- 7
- 10942
- 876
- J3
- 10862
West opened a diamond, North overcalled two clubs and when East upgraded his hand to an immediate two spades, West got the bit between his teeth and ended in six hearts. North led the club king, how then did the slam make?
Declarer won and drew trumps. North seeking to 'help' her partner, discarded an encouraging low spade. Seizing his chance, West ruffed a club and advanced the spade eight. Not only had North to play her ace on air, she was now end-played. The eventual club allowed declarer to throw a diamond from dummy, ruff in hand, then spade queen, diamond ace and dummy was high. Exhibit two:
- AKJ32
- KJ
- 932
- J63
- Q10654
- A9863
- 8
- A10
- 987
- Q10742
- AQJ
- 85
- ---
- 5
- K107654
- KQ9742
North-South did well to halt in three clubs declared by North. East led a heart and West won the ace and switched to her diamond, there followed ace and queen, covered and ruffed by West. With the trump ace still to come and four losing diamonds in dummy, things were looking good for the defence. West tried another heart…
Away went one of those small diamonds and now a simple trump play put West back on lead. A spade? North takes a finesse and three diamonds go away. A heart? North ruffs, throwing a diamond and the spade ace-king looks after the rest. Of course, after collecting the ruff, West should have cashed the club ace before getting off lead. As Jeremy Flint said, "Singleton aces are a peril at the races". I was never exactly sure what he meant by that - but you get the gist.
Published Saturday 26.Nov.2005