Bobby WolffWikipedia: Robert S. (Bobby) Wolff(born October 14, 1932, San Antonio, Texas) is an American bridge player, writer, and administrator. He is the only person to win world championships in five different categories.
Wolff was an original member of the Dallas Aces team, which was formed in 1968 to compete against the Italian Blue Team which was dominant at the time. The Aces were successful and won their first world championship in 1970. Wolff has won 11 world championships, over 30 North American championships, and was the president of World Bridge Federation (WBF) 1992–1994, and served as president of American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) 1987. He is the author of a tell-all on bridge chronicling 60 years on the scene, entitled The Lone Wolff, published by Master Point Press. His column, The Aces on Bridge has been appearing daily for over 32 years, is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate in more than 130 newspapers worldwide and is available online two weeks in arrears.
IMPs Dealer North. Both Vul
A 6 4
A Q 7
J 6 5
A Q 10 9
Q J 5 3 2
K J 4
8 3
K J 7
West
North
East
South
1NT
Pass
3
Pass
4
Pass
Pass
Pass
“My opinion is a view I hold until – well – until I find out something that changes it” Luigi Pirandello.
West led theK. The defenders took two diamonds and South ruffed the third round. With no work to be done in the side suits, South has only one problem – the play of the trump suit.
How could he best play the spades to avoid the possible loss of two splade tricks?
How does one play today’s trump suit? If you see only a familiar finessing position, look again. Some combintions present more options than others.
If South leads hisQ in an attempted finesse again West, the finesse “succeeds” but the game fails. West covers with the singleton king and now East has two natural trump tricks.
Let’s examine thet trump holding. With any 3-2 trump break, South must lose a trump trick regardless of how he proceeds. If trump are 4-1, the correct lead is a low trump to dummy’s ace and a low trump back. This wins not only when either defender has a singleton king, but also when East holds four trumps to the king and only three diamonds. (South would lead trumps twice from dummy to score both his queen and his jack).
The full deal:
A 6 4
A Q 7
J 6 5
A Q 10 9
